Everything
by CharmedMummy
Summary: She was everything he could ever want or need. A GarciaMorgan fic spanning the years. Based off of a Brad Paisley song.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** I've never tried a fic inspired by a song before, but you should always try something once, right:) Anyway, the song is "She's Everything" by Brad Paisley. I'm actually kind of stealing the idea of using this song for a fic from someone in the _CSI:NY_ thread, but since I'm doing mine with different characters from a different show I figured it would be okay. I would say who the author was but I can't remember. Anyway, there will be several little chapters to this story until I've used the entire song and while they will be in chronological order so you should be able to notice a progression in Morgan and Garcia's relationship they will each be pretty much self-contained meaning you could read one chapter as a separate fic from the others. This first chapter could fit anywhere, even pre-series, you decide. Subsequent chapters may refer to events in specific episodes, but if that is true I will clue you in to which episode is being referenced. Oh, and this should be considered as separate from my other Morgan/Garcia fics.

Sorry for the long opening, but that all needed to be said. Oh, and before I forget, the obvious disclaimers apply that I do not own the show _Criminal Minds_ or the recognizable characters/plots/whatever from it. Anything not recognizable is probably mine. I also do not own Brad Paisley or his music (more's the pity). Now, on to the story (finally).

* * *

_She's a yellow pair of running shoes  
A holey pair of jeans  
She looks great in cheap sunglasses  
She looks great in anything_

Derek Morgan knocked on the door in front of him again, this time a little more forcefully. He knew Garcia wouldn't want to answer the door on her day off, but duty called. The dispatcher whose job it was to call everyone back to the office if necessary had evidently had trouble getting in contact with the computer tech whose door he was in front of. So, Hotch had called Morgan knowing he was the only one who could get to Garcia in a timely fashion. It certainly wasn't anything official, but somehow Hotch just knew Morgan was his best bet if he wanted Garcia for the case.

"Come on Penelope, open up. Don't think I won't break down this door." He wouldn't and she probably knew that but he would make more noise that would just attract attention from her neighbors that lived in the other half of the duplex or even those next door and across the street. He had to use all of his honed FBI skills to keep from jumping when a voice came from behind him.

"Well, while it would be fun to see you in full FBI hottie tough guy mode, I really don't feel like replacing my door, so why don't you just let me unlock it?" Morgan turned slowly to find the blonde he was seeking standing on the walk that led up to the duplex with a half-empty water bottle in one hand and the wires for her earpieces that led down to the iPod at her waist in her other.

"Kicking down doors turns you on, huh?" Morgan smirked as he leaned against the wall behind him and crossed his arms. Even relaxing at home Garcia had her own unique style. She had on a pair of blue jeans with holes in them that looked real and natural rather than manufactured for effect. They had splotches of varying sizes and colors here and there that bespoke of what she had done in them before. They went well with her tie-dyed shirt that he wouldn't be surprised if she had done herself. A pair of sunglasses that probably hadn't cost her five bucks was perched on the top of her head. The finishing touch was the shoes. Only Garcia could pull off sneakers that to his trained eye had been spray painted to achieve the desired bright yellow color that could blind anyone who looked at them too long. Out of all the looks he had seen her in he thought that this was probably his favorite.

Damn, where had _that_ thought come from?

His mental cataloging of her attire almost had him missing her quick rejoinder of, "Now if I told you the answer to that you would never let another door stay standing." He gave an answering chuckle but couldn't form a coherent thought after his mental admission. Fortunately, Garcia didn't seem to notice.

"So, what brings you here?" she asked as she unlocked her front door using the keys attached to the bright green stretch plastic bracelet she wore on her right wrist. She went directly inside and headed for her kitchen to put the unfinished water in the fridge for later consumption fully expecting the man behind her to follow. He did just that, staking out a place near her front door by planting his feet shoulder width apart and refolding his arms. He mentally pushed his heretofore unknown predilection for sun colored running shoes to the back of his mind. While she wasn't a profiler, Garcia was as observant as anyone on the team and she would notice if he let himself appear out of sorts. Sometimes it really came in handy having the history he did. It made hiding secrets and emotions as easy as breathing.

"Something big has popped up. Big enough that they couldn't tell me over the phone and big enough that everyone, even supreme goddesses, are being called in on their day off."

Garcia came back into view taking her sunglasses off the top of her head as she stepped out of the kitchen. "Well doesn't that sound ominous. I'm glad I at least got in my weekend stroll around the neighborhood before the sky fell this time." She turned and headed down the short hallway off the living room ostensibly heading for her bedroom to change to an outfit more suitable for work at the FBI. "Why did they send you? My place isn't exactly on the way from your apartment to the BAU," she called out from behind the door she left partially open.

"They tried calling you and you didn't pick up or return their messages. Don't you keep a cell phone on you while walking?" _Don't think about what she's doing on the other side of that door, Morgan_, he told himself.

"Even those as technologically savvy and constantly connected as I am like a few moments here and there where we can't be reached. Granted for me that only lasts for a couple of hours every week or so, but still. Besides, it was my day off and I'm not even an agent anyway." Surprisingly she came out of the room after that comment completely transformed into the Penelope Garcia he saw every day in an example of her customary work attire that was just conservative enough to pass in the government work setting but still completely and uniquely her.

"As if we could get by without you, darling." She glanced up from where she had been taking items off of her dining room table and shoving them in her purse and gave him one of her big, beautiful smiles.

"It is only right that you should recognize my greatness." She picked up the purse and the jacket that was slung over the chair next to her. "All right, I'm set." She looked down at herself checking her appearance at Derek's raised eyebrows. "What?"

"How in the hell can you get ready that quickly? I know guys who couldn't change that fast." Garcia merely smirked and patted his cheek as she passed him and went out the front door.

"Now that would be telling, mon chéri." He followed her out and waited as she locked her door then headed to his government issue SUV parked at the curb while she went towards her convertible parked in the driveway. "Hey, Derek?"

"Yeah?" he answered back as he slipped his own sunglasses out of his blazer pocket in preparation for the drive.

"Since this is top secret and all and evidently I've already slowed up the process of getting us in, maybe you could put on the lights and sirens?" Morgan rolled his eyes and put on his sunglasses as he continued his trek around to the driver's side of his vehicle.

"Maybe next time, Garcia."

"You can't blame a girl for asking," she shot back. Morgan just chuckled as he got in and started the black SUV. As he waited for Garcia to back out of her driveway and get behind him he couldn't help thinking that she was everything that most every woman in his life weren't and he couldn't be happier about that fact.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** This chapter makes vague references to occurrences in the second season episode The Perfect Storm.To briefly recap the pertinent parts, the psycho who was kidnapping and torturing young women sent DVDs of the acts to the mothers of the victims and Garcia had to watch and listen to those DVDs to try and get any helpful information. Also, though it's not really important, Morgan got jumped by the other psycho and was hit in the back before he took down said psycho. Hopefully that's enough to understand the story. :)

* * *

_She's I want a piece of chocolate  
Take me to a movie  
She's I can't find a thing to wear  
Now and then she's moody_

Derek flipped through channels finally landing on what looked to be a spelling bee. How that qualified as a sport that should be shown on ESPN he would never know, but it sufficed for now. He rubbed his back where he could feel the baseball bat-shaped bruise. It wasn't his first such injury and it wouldn't be his last. "You okay in there, Garcia?" he called back towards her bedroom as he watched some kid try to spell amuse-bouche. He didn't even know what the word meant let alone how to spell it. It seemed a little unfair to ask these kids to not only memorize and recall thousands of words in the English language, but then throw in random words from other languages as well.

"Yeah, I just can't find anything to wear." Derek quietly sighed. Garcia always knew what she wanted to wear at any given moment. It was a trait of hers he greatly admired and appreciated after the countless times he had waited on dates who couldn't figure out what shoes they wanted to put on let alone the rest of the outfit. No, her current indecision was all about something else but he wouldn't begrudge her the mood she was in. God knew she was entitled to it.

And yet he still couldn't hold back his entirely male response that was almost instinctual. "Honey, you look great in anything. Besides, we're just going to a movie." He flinched as a sandal went whipping by his head to hit the TV cabinet. You'd think as a profiler trained in psychology as thoroughly as he was he would know not to say something like that but he guessed he was only human.

He got up from the couch and walked to the bedroom and leaned against the doorjamb to speak closer to the opening in the doorway. "Sorry, babe. Take as long as you need, okay?" He wondered again if he should make her talk. On one hand he knew what not talking about the kind of thing she had endured did to you. Nobody, trained agent or not, could have listened to those tapes as much and as carefully as she did without hearing the screams and sobbing pleas over and over for days if not weeks. On the other hand he also knew from personal experience that sometimes pushing too hard would just make someone pull into their shell and you'd never get them to open up while backing off and waiting could get you your desired result. That was why he was going along with her whims at the moment. If she wanted to go out and try to replace the sounds stuck in her head with the noise from some Hollywood blockbuster then he was happy to oblige her.

"It's fine," Garcia told him as she opened the door fully and walked past him heading for her purse and starting her usual getting ready to go routine. "I'm sorry I threw that shoe at you. I'm just being stupid, I know."

Morgan walked up behind the shorter woman and put his hands on her shoulders and slowly and softly rubbed them. "Since you missed which I'm sure was on purpose because you never miss at anything, you have nothing to apologize for. And you're not being stupid at all, Penelope."

She sighed and turned to face him so she could bury her face in his chest. "Yes, I am. But after the last couple of days we've both had I'll grant you that maybe I'm allowed."

Derek smiled as he put his chin on her head and his arms around her. "I can comprise and agree to that." He looked down as Garcia pulled back and looked up at him with a concerned expression on her face. "What, darling?"

"This case can't have been easy for you either, Derek. If there was something else you'd rather be doing to deal with it I would totally unders-" Morgan cut her off with a finger to her lips.

"The only thing I need right now is you, Penelope. Location doesn't really matter." As he gazed into her eyes he realized that they were probably going a bit too fast and neither of them were in a mental or emotional place to deal with that right now, so he kissed her forehead and moved back a couple of steps. "You ready to go now?"

Garcia gave him an understanding smile that let him know she had felt the speed of the moment as well and appreciated the application of the brakes. "Yeah." She picked up her purse and Morgan helped her put on her jacket. "So, are you still planning on letting me pick the movie?"

"Bring it on, Garcia." He pulled the keys to his SUV from his pocket as he reached for the remote with his other hand to turn off the television. It was a little cool on that October night to take Garcia's convertible so they had agreed he would drive. "If you're lucky I might even buy snacks."

"Lucky is my middle name. I can already see a giant 3 Musketeers in my future." She winked at him over her shoulder as she locked her door.

Morgan smiled and walked to his vehicle where he held open the passenger side door for her. "And before you ask," he said as she climbed in, "no, we cannot turn on the lights and sirens in order to make it to the movie on time." He closed the door and thought he heard her muffled voice say "Spoilsport." He smiled and felt some of the weight from the case fall from his shoulders. In the past it would have taken longer and possibly some alcohol to achieve that, but these days she was everything he needed to let go and heal enough to continue doing his job. He only hoped he did the same for her.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** Just a quick note to say that this chapter makes references to events that happened in the second season episode Aftermath which is the episode where Elle botched an undercover assignment and then shot the suspect but nobody could prove that it wasn't self-defense and she did it because she was likely suffering from PTSD. I promise not every chapter will bring the angst. :)

* * *

_She's a Saturn with a sunroof  
With her brown hair a-blowing  
She's a soft place to land  
And a good feeling knowing_

Morgan flipped through the photo album he had pulled off of one of Garcia's shelves in her living room. She had already ordered dinner and been about to jump in the shower when he arrived. It was late and he should have probably let her go to sleep, but he needed her comfort more than ever tonight. He shook his head and refocused on the pictures in plastic sleeves before him. Thinking about Elle and how he should have seen it coming would get him nowhere.

"Food isn't here yet?" Garcia asked as she came out of her bedroom towel drying her hair.

"Not yet. Freddy must be driving tonight." When they wanted food at some ungodly hour they almost always called the same place so they had come to know the various delivery people and their habits.

"I swear, if our food is cold this time I will take your gun and threaten him with it," she said from the kitchen where she grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge.

"Why do you think I'm still wearing it?" Morgan teased her as she came to stand in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. He chuckled as she stuck her tongue out at him. It was then she noticed what he had been looking at.

"Oh, God, don't tell me you're looking at what I think you're looking at," she moaned as she covered her eyes with her hand.

He smiled. "Hey, after you found my box of pictures I thought it was only fair I got to see some of yours. At least I didn't hunt through your closet for this."

"I was looking for the hand held vacuum cleaner you insisted was in there, mister. Since it wasn't in there like you claimed I figured I at least got to look at the box of pictures you had stuffed back there. I still don't know why you won't let me put them in a photo album for you so they don't get ruined. It's not like I'm going to do some cutesy scrapbooking with them, I just want to put them in some plastic. You don't even have a lid on the box."

He refrained from telling her that he wouldn't mind if a couple of those pictures were ruined. He couldn't bring himself to destroy them, but that didn't mean he wanted them preserved. To divert himself from that train of thought he flipped back a couple of pages in the album that sat on his lap and pulled out a picture to hold up to her. "So, darling, sweetie, honey, gorgeous. When exactly were you a brunette?"

Garcia draped her towel over a chair and put her water bottle on the coffee table before coming forward to take the picture from him and sit on the opposite side of the couch. "I forgot that one was even in there!" She smiled at him and handed back the photo. "That was during college. My roommate told me that nobody would believe I was smart if I was blonde and perception still mattered to my teenage brain. So, I went brunette. And the crap took forever to completely leave once I finally came to my senses and decided I was genius enough that I shouldn't give a damn what conclusions people came to because of something as stupid as the color of my hair." She tucked a foot under herself and turned so her whole body faced him and put an arm against the back of the couch so she could prop her chin on her hand. "That and the fact that I already had to deal with enough preconceptions due to the fact that I was a computer geek that I decided what was one more?"

Derek leaned forward. "Anyone who doesn't recognize your genius and wit within about 10 seconds of meeting you is obviously not right in the head," he said before he put a soft kiss on her lips and then leaned back against his corner of the couch.

"A whole ten seconds?" Garcia questioned with an upraised eyebrow and a twinkle in her eye.

"Well, that takes into account the first nine and a half seconds where they would be stunned by your beauty." Morgan laid his arm across the back of the couch with the palm of his hand up and she readily put her hand in his.

"You're good, Agent Morgan. The Bureau teach you that?" she teased as she squeezed his hand.

"Right after the fire arms training," he quipped. He held the picture up again with his other hand. "Back to the picture, I'm actually more surprised by the car than the hair. What's with the Saturn?"

Garcia smiled. "That's not my car. I was way too poor in college to have one. It was my roommate's."

"The same one who said you should go brunette?" he asked.

"One and the same. That advice may be a mark against her, but she does deserve credit for showing me the wonders of having the wind blow throw my hair. I used to love standing on the seat of her car and sticking out of the sun roof just like in that picture."

Morgan looked down at the color photo again. It must have been taken from someone in a car in front of Garcia and who he guessed to be the roommate driving. "I'm going to take a wild guess that that isn't exactly legal."

The blonde still holding his hand rolled her eyes. "Ever the law enforcement officer. The illegality of the act was part of the thrill." Morgan chuckled and looked back down at the album while absently rubbing Garcia's hand with his thumb. Several moments later she broke the silence. "Derek?"

"Yeah?" he asked as he looked back up. He inwardly winced as he noted the way she was now looking at him. Apparently he wasn't doing too good of a job keeping his state of mind from showing. That or she knew him well enough to guess where his head was at regardless of what he tried to project.

"You know that it wasn't your fault, right? That she made her own choices and now she has to live with them." He knew that she didn't mean that as a criticism against Elle. While nobody on the team condoned what she had done, they all sympathized with her and what she had gone through and what the case had probably brought up for her. Garcia was just addressing how the situation pertained to him.

"Can we not talk about it tonight, Penelope?" If he was going to talk about it with anyone it would be her since Hotch and Gideon had problems of their own to handle regarding Elle and probably wouldn't or couldn't handle Derek's issues on top of that. And also since she was the only one outside of his mother and sisters he easily opened up to anyway, but he didn't want to handle it that night. A few more days and he would have dealt with the worst of it and then he could talk it out if necessary.

"I'm not asking for a long conversation, I just want to know for now that you at least understand up here," she said as she leaned forward and tapped his head with a finger from her free hand, "that you are not responsible. Everything down here," she continued, poking his chest over his heart this time, "can wait till a little later."

He gave her a small smile. He should have known she wouldn't try to push him too hard. It was why he always gravitated to her after stuff like this. She was safe and made him feel good in a way that no one else ever had. Sometimes he felt like knowing her was the only thing that kept him sane. But she _would_ softly nudge to help him get his head on straight and he was grateful for that as well. "Yeah, I do know intellectually that hindsight is 20/20 and all." He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. "I'm okay for tonight. I've got all I need in you."

He watched her blink rapidly to hold back tears. "You must have aced that course at Quantico, stud muffin." He smiled and opened his mouth to reply when the doorbell rang. "The food!" Garcia grabbed his arm and turned it so she could read his watch. "It's about time! He better have a good explanation or he'll be wearing our order…"

Morgan just smiled as she opened the door and mildly berated the delivery man on the other side who had started apologizing profusely immediately. It would probably take a little longer this time and there would be ripples from Elle's actions for a long while to come, but he wasn't just being romantic when he told Garcia she was everything he needed. Even food seemed inconsequential compared to how much he needed her. And the scary thing wasn't that he needed her. No, the scary thing was that needing her like that didn't scare him at all.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: **This chapter doesn't refer to any specific episode, the only thing you need to know is that it occurs sometime after Emily Prentiss joined the team, but before the episode Profiler, Profiled. Oh, and while it's not really necessary, I guess I could throw out the parallels to a season one episode when Garcia threw away Elle's drink because she put it down next to Garcia's equipment. Never mess with Garcia's computers. :)

* * *

_She's a warm conversation  
That I wouldn't miss for nothing  
She's a fighter when she's mad  
And she's a lover when she's loving_

Derek came out of the elevator totally engrossed in the file he was holding. A police department out in Oregon thought they saw a connection between some cases and had asked for the BAU to look things over. Morgan wasn't sure they were directly linked to one another but there was enough to merit a thorough look. That look was interrupted when Reid came out of the bullpen at full speed.

"Morgan! Thank God you're here!" Derek's eyebrows came together in a look of concern. Reid had faced down psychotic killers and willingly stepped onto a train with an armed schizophrenic. What could have him this upset and agitated?

"What's up, Reid?" he asked as he closed the file he had been perusing. He held up a hand as the young man started spewing words out at warp speed. "Take a deep breath and slow down, I have no idea what you just said."

Dr. Reid pushed some of his hair behind his ear and took the advised breath before trying to talk again. This time he still talked at a fast pace but he was much more coherent. "Emily and I were in Garcia's office going over some footage. Garcia had told her that she had to be careful with any food or liquid she brought in, but Emily totally forgot and put her coffee down next to Garcia's keyboard as she leaned forward to look at something more closely and then accidentally knocked it over. Garcia went ballistic! I ran for my life and thought I should find you so you could save Emily from a fate worse than death…" He trailed off as Morgan thrust the folder at him and hurried past in the direction of the bullpen and Garcia's office beyond.

"Did you think I told you to be careful for the hell of it? What part of liquids and electronics don't mix do you NOT underSTAND?!" Derek picked up his pace further upon hearing Garcia's voice rise. Prentiss was obviously getting a crash course in a side of Penelope Garcia that people rarely saw. Shadows of her ability to get righteously (and loudly) angry occasionally peeked out but nobody had ever made the mistake of doing something that could unleash the tiger within the blonde. That is, until now.

"I am so, so sorry, Garcia. It was an accident-" Morgan winced as he approached the door. Excuses wouldn't work at this point.

"There wouldn't have been a possibility for an accident if you had listened to me! I told you to be careful and that you were absolutely not allowed to set liquids next to my equipment! Was I speaking a language you don't comprehend?" The blonde forcefully threw the paper towels she had been using to clean up the worst of the mess into the nearby trash basket and then dropped her arms to her sides and clenched her fists. He didn't have to guess much at what she probably wanted to do with her hands at that moment. "I don't know who you think you are, but just because you wear a gun and you're a big bad profiler doesn't mean you can treat other people like their rules don't matter. Why don't you just-" That was his cue to jump in before things went too far.

"Penelope, calm down," he said as he walked in and put a hand on her tense shoulder. He didn't let himself react as she turned her flashing eyes onto him.

"Don't tell me to calm down, Derek Morgan. Do you know what she did? This, this-" She seemed really intent on going down roads that could only end badly.

"I know, Reid told me." He looked at the other woman in the room. "Why don't you go, Prentiss. I can take it from here." He saw the relief in her eyes as she began to back out of the room.

"Once again, I am so, so-" Derek was getting good at this cutting people off thing.

"Not now, Prentiss," he said with a look in his eyes that let her know whose side he was on. He followed the comment by shutting the door practically in her face and then turning and leaning against it with his arms folded. Garcia had her hand on her hips now and she was obviously not happy at having her rant thwarted.

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down, Agent Morgan. That…that…_imbecile_ deserved everything I would have said." Obviously that wasn't the word she wanted to use, but already she was calming down enough to realize that certain words were probably better left unsaid in the work environment.

Morgan held up his hands in a placating gesture. "I never said she didn't deserve it, Garcia. I just don't want to see you blow an aneurysm over this." He walked closer to her and slowly and carefully put a hand to her flushed cheek, waiting for any indication that she didn't want to be touched at the moment. They had been careful to keep their relationship out of the office, not out of a concern about what people would say or anything like that, but because they saw their relationship as their business and their business only and also because their work was serious and couldn't afford to be impeded by personal relationship issues, good or bad. Not to mention Hotch would probably blow a gasket if he saw them doing anything cutesy on government time beyond the verbal flirting they had established long ago. However, Morgan guessed that even Hotch would cut them some slack at this moment. He'd rather let this slide then have Garcia ranting for who knew how long and no work getting done.

Of course she could also just still be mad enough that she didn't want to be touched period, but when she made no move to reject his hand Derek moved it to the back of her head and used it to gently pull her forward until she was nestled against his body. "I also wouldn't want to see your career ruined because you mouthed off to the wrong person, darling," he continued softly.

She drew back slightly and looked up at him. "Come on, Morgan. Just because she's well connected doesn't mean she would use those connections over something like this."

Morgan caressed her cheek with one hand while keeping the other where it was behind her head. "I don't know her well enough to know whether or not she would, honey." He decided to abandon that road since they would probably just argue about it anyway. He knew he was being stubborn and letting his residual anger over the Elle situation and her sudden departure color his opinion of Prentiss, but he just couldn't warm up to her. Garcia hadn't exactly become best friends with the woman, but she had been her usually friendly self with the new BAU agent. Well, until today. "Anyway, how bad is the damage? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Penelope Garcia closed her eyes and leaned forward until she was once again snuggled against his chest. "You're helping right now, gorgeous." They stood like that for a few moments until a soft knock came at the door and they both turned towards the intruding noise.

The door slowly opened and JJ cautiously stuck her head in. "Hey, guys. Is everything okay in here?" Obviously word had already spread about what had happened.

Morgan stepped to Garcia's side so he would be facing the door but didn't bother dropping the arm he now had placed around Penelope's shoulders. Short of Gideon or Hotch at the door he wouldn't have anyway, but Jennifer Jareau was well aware of their relationship. Garcia and she often girl talked and occasionally hung out together outside of work. "Yeah, JJ, everything's fine. Did you need something?"

"A compelling case in Colorado just landed on my desk and Hotch is calling a meeting to discuss it. We'll probably be heading out soon." She looked apologetic for intruding but as was often the case, duty called.

"Thanks, JJ. I'll be there in a minute, but Garcia needs to fix stuff in here." JJ nodded and left the room.

"It's okay, Derek, I'm calm now and I promise I won't attack Emily upon seeing her again." Physically, maybe, but Morgan wouldn't put money on Garcia letting bygones be bygones just yet. However, that wasn't the real reason he had said Garcia wouldn't go to the meeting. He knew her too well.

"Honey, you won't be able to concentrate on anything until you've fully cleaned and checked out your babies, so you might as well get started now so you'll be ready as soon as possible to help us on this newest case."

She smirked back at him. "Point to the profiler." She sighed and turned back to her equipment. "I may have to revise my rules to say no liquid other than my own is ever to enter this room. Maybe I'll even post them outside the door. And include consequences for the various offenses. Like tarring and feathering for multiple offenders."

Derek laughed. "Not a bad idea, sweetie," he said before leaning forward a bit to kiss the back of her head. "I promise to bring something back for you if we end up flying out."

Instead of continuing the conversation in the same tone, Garcia turned and contemplated him seriously. "Just come back to me in one piece, Derek. That's the only gift I need."

Derek Morgan felt a slight ache in his chest and resisted the urge to touch her again knowing that would seriously delay him from getting to the meeting he needed to be at. "You know I'll do my best, Penelope. If we are actually flying out, I promise to come say goodbye before we leave, okay?"

"You better, darlin'," she drawled in an attempt to lighten the mood again knowing he needed to be focused to do his job. "Invoking my wrath twice in one day would be unwise."

Morgan smiled back at her before finally slipping from the room. He had avoided office romances for years, once telling Reid he had a policy of not dating women who wore guns, but in truth just not wanting to let his personal and professional lives intersect that much. Now those two aspects of his life were pretty much meshed together and he found he didn't care one bit. She may not have been perfect, but neither was he and he found that more and more each day she was becoming his everything and he wouldn't trade that for anything.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: **Okay, it's time for the chorus of the song. This chapter ended up feeling slightly like the end to the story, but don't worry, it's not. I fully intend to write chapters for every part of the song. :) As for this chapter, it's set the day before the second season episode Profiler, Profiled as in Derek is in Chicago but hasn't had the birthday party for his mom or been arrested yet. Some of the pertinent information that might be harder to remember is that his mother's name is Fran, his older sister is Sarah and his younger sister is Desiree, and his father was killed trying to stop a robbery when Derek was a kid. Hopefully I have all of that info correct. I feel a little bit like I am permanently set on sappy because this chapter really brings the sentimental sugar, but I'm hoping you all still enjoy it. :)

* * *

_  
And she's everything I ever wanted  
And everything I need  
I talk about her, I go on and on and on  
'Cause she's everything to me_

"Do you want another piece of pie?" Fran Morgan asked her son as she started to clear the dishes in front of them and headed to the kitchen to put them in the dishwasher.

"No, I'm stuffed, Mom. I don't think I can even move." It was nice to be home. Chicago held a lot of bad memories, but there were a lot of good ones too and here in his mother's place he could forget about all of the dark parts of his past. Here everything was fine and the biggest thing he had to worry about was a few extra calories. Well, more than a few. His mother knew they'd be having birthday cake for her tomorrow and she still insisted on stuffing him with apple pie tonight.

Every visit followed a similar pattern, but the repetition was comforting. He had at least learned to not even bother to offer to help with the dishes. His mother would always just tell him a variation of the same line, _I don't see you nearly enough, so let me be a mother._ He felt guilty sometimes about the small amount of time he spent with her and his sisters, but even they couldn't draw him back to Chicago for more than a few days at a time. As beautiful as the city was, he wouldn't mind never seeing its skyline ever again.

"So," the brown haired woman began as she reentered the living room with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate, breaking Derek out of his musings. "When am I going to get to meet this Penelope Garcia?"

Morgan groaned and laid his head back against the living room chair he was sitting in. "Mom-"

"Don't you 'Mom' me, Derek Morgan. You haven't been able to stop talking about her all night. If the conversation doesn't start on her, you eventually find a way to bring it back around to her," she informed him as he took one of the offered mugs.

He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand and took a sip of the hot chocolate to stall for a few moments. It wasn't that he was unwilling to talk about his relationship with Garcia, it was just that his mother would invariably start pressuring him for details and bring up the subject of grandkids and no man liked it when he stumbled into that discussion with his mother. Then again, this was probably one of those things he owed her for not being around more. That didn't mean he would open up immediately though. Prying was probably part of the fun about it for her. "We work together, Mom. I've told you stories and things about everyone else, too."

Fran raised an eyebrow from where she sat on her couch. "That explanation doesn't fly, Derek. You've mentioned this Penelope about twelve times for every one time you bring up one of your other coworkers. Besides, a mother knows when someone has become special to one of her children and I think this girl has become special to you."

Was he really that obvious? Normally he was a brick wall, giving out just enough superficial knowledge about himself to keep most people satisfied to the point that they didn't notice that he never really gave anything substantial about himself away. Even around his family where he was much more relaxed he still held back a bit because there were some things deeply buried that even his mother didn't know about, which left the option that yes he probably was that obvious. He sighed and took another sip from his drink. "Yeah, I guess you could call her special." He stared at the wall beyond his mother. "She's amazing, Mom. She's one of the smartest people I know, and that's saying a lot, but she's totally nonchalant about it. I mean, sure, she jokes and calls herself a goddess but she never does it in a way that would ever make someone else feel inferior. And she's like a ray of sunshine at the BAU. I can't imagine how dark and depressing the place would be without her. Nobody else would really ever get my sense of humor and be able to play along as well as she does." He refocused and was embarrassed to see his mom battling back tears. "It's not that big of a deal, Mom. We've been seeing each other for awhile, but it's nowhere near serious enough to cry about." _Yet_, he added silently to himself.

He watched as his mother wiped her eyes with a tissue she grabbed from the box on the side table. "Don't mind me, darling. It's a mother thing." She smiled at him and then a look came over her face like the proverbial light bulb had gone on. "Wait here just a second, I have something I want to show you."

Morgan drained the last of the hot chocolate and set the mug down on the coffee table. He almost groaned again when his mother came back into the room. "What exactly do my baby pictures have to do with our discussion? And you're not going to meet Garcia if you plan on bringing those out."

His mother playfully slapped him on the shoulder. "I'm not bringing this out for the pictures, though showing them to your girlfriend isn't a bad idea. I'm sure I could find her work phone number or e-mail address somehow…"

"Whoa, forget I said anything," Derek interjected. It wasn't Garcia's seeing of the pictures necessarily that had him worried, it was what she could do with them. The last time she had seen pictures of him she had snuck one out of his apartment and used it as a desktop image on one of her computers and he heard about it for weeks from the other members of the team.

His mother just smiled. "Anyway, here is why I pulled out your baby album," she said as she pulled a sheet of paper from the front of the book. "This is an entry I made in my journal a few weeks after you were born. Years later I happened to read it again and thought it should go in your book and just the other day when I was cleaning some things out of my closet I stumbled across it again and thought I should show it to you someday. I had no idea that day would come so soon, but now seems like the perfect time." She handed him the paper, placed the album on the coffee table and picked up their mugs to take them to the kitchen and leave him alone to read.

Derek didn't know if he wanted to read the words in front of him or not, but he didn't see that he had much of a choice. Looking at the date from 1976 at the top of the page he realized she hadn't been kidding, she wrote the entry close to when he was born. He shook his head, told himself to stop stalling, and started to read.

_He's beautiful. I never in a million years expected to have a son since there are only girls on my side of the family, but here he is, my little Derek._

_As I sit here writing and watching him, I wonder what life holds for my little boy. Will he like sports? I know he will if his father has anything to say about it, particularly football. Will he do well in school? Well, he will if I have anything to say about it._

_What will be his favorite color? His favorite food? What will make him laugh? What animal will he most look forward to seeing at the zoo? Will he be a White Sox fan like his father or a Cubs fan like me? Will he even like baseball? These questions fascinate me and I can't wait to discover the wonders of the mystery that is my son._

_And already I worry for him. Not just about the usual concerns any mother has about her infant, but the distant future. I know that there will be hardships and trials that he will have to endure that I will be powerless to stop and my heart aches with the knowledge that this innocent little being will ever have to know pain in any form. There will be the small things like the first time he skins his knee, the bigger ones like the first time a girl breaks his heart, and those that I hope he encounters as sparingly as possible. The pain that results when evil touches you or those you love or even just the innocent around you._

_But I can't hope or wish for a lack of pain for it is as much through those experiences as the happy ones that we are shaped and color our perceptions and interpretations of the world._

_So what can I wish for Derek? Just saying I hope he is happy seems too vague and cliché. Of course a mother would wish happiness for her child. So what specifically do I hope for him? I don't really care whether he plays sports or is any good at them and while I will encourage him to be a good student I won't be ashamed of a son who doesn't finish at the top of his class. He could end up a garbage collector and I would still love him to the depths of my heart._

_I suppose…I suppose I wish for him a companion in life like I have found with his father. I suppose I am too new in my motherhood with Sarah and Derek to be thinking about grandchildren because I find that that has nothing to do with why I hope Derek finds someone to love and cherish and who will love and cherish him. No, I want him to find that kind of partner who completes him like I have been completed. Someone who worries about him, who watches out for him when his parents are no longer there to do the job._

_I want him to find a woman who he can't stop talking about. Someone who fulfills every need he never knew he had, who goes beyond that and satisfies every want he could ever conceive of. Someone to walk through life's tough times with as well as someone to share the good times with. Someone who will understand him as even I won't be able to. Someone he will feel like he can share his deepest, darkest secrets with, no matter how scary. Someone who will not flinch when she must fight for him, but who respects the times he must fight for her. Someone who is softness with an inner core of steel. Someone who can look past the good looks I selfishly believe my son will have and will see the real him underneath. Someone who I will be proud to call daughter. Someone who will want to give him the gift of a child like I have given his father._

_Okay, I said I wasn't thinking about grandchildren, but I guess I got a little caught up in the moment there. I suppose overall my biggest wish is just that he will feel fulfilled and I suppose I'm projecting what has fulfilled me. My husband has made me stronger than I ever thought I could be and I want that for Derek, the inner peace and joy you get when you find that one person in life who is your soulmate, who you can't remember life before and don't want to think about life after._

_I look forward to meeting that woman someday, the woman who completes this child that I have adored since the first moment I felt him move in me, the son I never thought I would have._

Derek felt a tear fall on his hand that was holding the paper and realized that it was his own. He didn't know if he would be able to talk through the lump in his throat. He put the paper on the coffee table and stood for a moment thinking about what he had just read. She had had no idea what her son would endure, had no thoughts about the father he would lose or the betrayal of a mentor he would suffer, had no idea that he would choose a profession where he saw the depths of human depravity daily. And yet…and yet she managed to articulate beautifully what Penelope Garcia had become to him. He had not let himself think about it that specifically before, had not wanted to overanalyze their relationship as his profiler instincts were wont to do.

But not analyzing something didn't mean its characteristics didn't exist and that was true here as well. Penelope was everything his mother had written about and more, she just _was_ everything. He finally allowed himself to acknowledge that he was forever and ever in love with Penelope Garcia.

He suddenly couldn't wait to be back in Virginia so he could tell her, but that would have to wait a few more days. For now there was someone who wouldn't mind hearing his news, though he would be general since Garcia deserved to hear the words first.

Morgan headed into the kitchen where he found his mom holding another cup of hot chocolate that she put down on the counter as she turned towards him. He simply walked up to her, put his arms around her, and whispered in her ear, "You don't have to hope and wish anymore, Mom. I've found her and she's everything you wanted for me and more."


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:** Okay, this is where the story goes a bit AU in the sense that the chapters will no longer sync up with the events of episodes. I may make allusions to information from episodes, but the chapters won't occur right before or after an episode's events anymore. I like using events from episodes, but I've run out of episodes that work for me and I want to go a bit further into the future so I couldn't stay with the show's timeline anymore. Anyway, the only other important note for this chapter is that I'm upping the rating on the story because of this chapter. I don't get explicit by any means, but I like to be safe. But if you object at all to adults in adult situations, well, this may not be the chapter for you. For the rest, I hope you enjoy. :)

All you need to know for this chapter is that it is months after the last one and that allusions are made to the parts of Morgan's past that we learned about in the episode Profiler, Profiled.

* * *

_She's a Saturday out on the town  
And a church girl on Sunday  
She's a cross around her neck  
And a cuss word 'cause its Monday_

Derek's breathing slowly came back under control. He was thankful at that moment for his good genes and the necessity of staying in decent shape for his job because one of these days the woman currently in his arms was going to kill him. Oh, but what a way to go.

It was amazing. He had never been much of a cuddler. Sure, he would hold women, but nothing like this. He couldn't seem to get close enough to her. Currently her blonde head was on his chest with her ear over his heart, one of her legs threaded between his, and his right and her left hand were interlaced, and yet it still wasn't enough so he brushed across her back with his left hand. He chuckled a little when his hand encountered a small piece of metal attached to a necklace. "I guess we forgot something in our haste."

Garcia propped her chin on his chest so that she could look him in the eye. "I think we were both in a little bit of a hurry to try and unclasp a necklace, darling. And if we had broken it I would've had to get it fixed and I probably would have inadvertently mentioned it to my mother and then she would have asked how it got broken and that would have been all kinds of awkward…"

Morgan chuckled again and leaned his head forward to briefly kiss her lips. "I get it." He carefully brought the object on the necklace around to its rightful place in the front. "What would Pastor Harmon say if he could see you now? Would you need to go in for confession even though you were just at church this morning?" he teased as he fingered the small, delicate cross that hung from her neck.

"First of all, even the thought of my pastor being able to see me right now sends shivers down my spine, and not the good kind that you are so good at giving me. Secondly, neither one of us is Catholic, Derek, so it's not like I would go to confession anyway. Thirdly, I think he'd cut me a little slack since I'm also wearing this piece of jewelry," she finished and held up their still interlaced hands, turning them so the diamond engagement ring that he had given her just over 24 hours before was clearly visible.

He couldn't help staring at it for a moment. He was as secure as any man could be in Garcia's love for him, but he couldn't help the anxiety he had felt before popping the question at the restaurant Saturday night or the awe he felt now at the fact that she had actually said yes. He supposed it was what any guy went through at such a monumental time in his life. And he wasn't really surprised that Garcia figured out where his head was at, or at least close to it.

"Crazy, isn't it?" He brought his eyes back to hers and lost themselves in their depths. "How two people who come from such different backgrounds could find each other and it could be this perfect?"

"I was actually thinking that you must be a little crazy for saying yes," he said only half joking.

She wasn't fooled by his lame attempt at being funny. "Don't you dare, Derek Morgan." He loved that flash in her eyes, even when it was aimed at him. "I won't let anyone else say things like that about you, what makes you think I'll let you get away with it?"

"Penelope" was all he got out before she shifted positions so that she was fully on top of him and had his head in her hands.

"You are a good man, Derek. I'm not talking about your job and the good you do for people that way. That's only a manifestation of the core principle that is you. You, Derek Morgan, are an amazing, wonderful, compassionate, loyal, courageous, beautiful man worthy of all the boundless love I have for you and the fact that crappy stuff happened to you in your past doesn't change that."

What had he done to deserve someone like her? Just like that she made his past and all its demons seem inconsequential. He remembered the night that he had finally told her everything. She had known bits and pieces after he was arrested last year, but only Gideon and Hotch had realized it all. He had held the inevitable conversation off as long as he felt that he could because he feared of how it would change their relationship. He knew she wouldn't leave him or anything, she wasn't like that. No, what worried him was that the knowledge would change the way she looked at him. Instead of just love he would see pity and sympathy at what he had endured and fear over how she should handle him. She would worry about what to say to him in certain situations. Things would just change and eventually they would drift apart over the inability to work through dealing with his past and finally the chasm between them would be so big that they would no longer be able to bridge it.

He needn't have worried. That night she had just held his hand until he was done talking, silently crying over his pain. Then when he was done she asked him if the bastards responsible for taking his father from him were in prison since she already knew Buford, the monster who stole what shreds of childhood he had had left, had been convicted. When he confirmed that they were all she said was "Good" before kissing him and loving away all of the residual pain he had still had left even after putting Buford away. That night had marked a true turning point in his life when he felt like his past finally and truly was just that, his past, and that it no longer dictated his future. Nowadays the only concession she made to the knowledge she had was to give his hand a squeeze or something along those lines when a case hit a little too close to home.

But what was he doing dwelling on all of that when he was a newly engaged man? It was time to lighten the mood again. "Any more adjectives you could think of there? Like marvelous, unbelievable, incredible…"

Evidently he conveyed through his eyes that he had taken her point to heart because she easily picked up the conversational ball. "Oh, I have a whole thesaurus for you, love bunny. Let's see, there's stubborn, conceited-"

"Conceited!" He quickly rolled and took her with him so she was once again underneath his body. "I don't think that's what you were saying earlier. I believe you were elevating me to god status at one point." He began kissing her neck and taking a path down her body. "In fact, you were downright blasphemous, darling." He didn't give her much of a chance to reply as things quickly spiraled out of control after that.

A little later he was once again trying to bring his breathing back to normal, this time with Penelope spooned in front of him. He was a little surprised to hear a groan and a soft but heartfelt "Damn" come from her. "Something wrong, babe?" he asked.

"Yes, something is wrong. It's 2 o'clock in the morning, Derek! It's Monday now and we have to be at work in six hours."

He smiled behind her and squeezed her a little tighter with the arm he had across her. "I didn't hear you complaining a few minutes ago about how I was keeping you up past your bedtime."

"Well, you'll be hearing about it tomorrow, well, later today actually. I'm not a big, bad FBI agent who is trained to work on minimal sleep. Goddesses need their beauty rest."

"Then sleep, Penelope."

She snorted. "What's the point? I'll have to get up in a few hours anyway. I'll probably be more productive if I just don't go to sleep." She groaned at the thought.

"Don't worry about it, honey. I cleared it with Hotch to go in late tomorrow." His fiancé quickly turned all the way around in his arms so she could see him.

"You told Hotch that we…that we…that…" He chuckled and brushed some of her hair off of her face and behind her ear.

"Wow, I made you speechless." He grabbed her hand as she went to smack him. "Hey, is that any way to treat your future husband?" He leaned forward and quickly kissed her lips. "No, I did not get specific with Hotch and ask him if we could have time off to literally screw around. I just told him I was doing something special with you this weekend and if it would be possible for us to come in a few hours late on Monday. It's possible he guessed that I was going to ask you to marry me since he's a profiler and all, but he just smiled and told me we could come in after lunchtime." He didn't add that that was contingent on whether or not anything urgent like a child abduction popped up, but that was pretty much a given that didn't need to be said. They both understood and accepted the demands of their jobs and the personal sacrifices that were required.

Penelope smiled at him again. "I knew there was a reason I loved you." She got that twinkle in her eye that he also loved so much. "Of course, it could just be because of the huge and expensive ring you put on my finger."

"Oh, yeah?" he said while smiling and leaning forward to take her lips once again. And despite her protestations about needing sleep it was she who started the engine revving again. Not that he was complaining. She made him feel like she was everything he really needed and that he could go forever without another wink of sleep. As his mind began to lose the ability to form coherent thoughts he realized that the word everything wasn't really big enough to encompass all that she made him feel, all that she was to him, but it was the best word he could come up with. She was everything and thank God she said yes because he needed her everything by his side for the rest of his life.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN:** This chapter makes a leap into the future again to a time where Morgan and Garcia have already been married for awhile. That's partially because the ideas for each chapter just pop into my head and I can't seem to deviate much once I have an idea and and also because I always intended each chapter to be like a snapshot of their lives at different points. So, I'm sorry if anyone was hoping for wedding specifics or anything like that, but I hope you'll like what I do have. :)

Anyway, like I said, this chapter jumps forward to when Morgan and Garcia are already married. The only knowledge from the show that it would be helpful to have is the stuff about Morgan's recurring nightmare that he discusses with Reid in the season one episode The Popular Kids where he talks about seeing a dead girl's eyes in his dreams. I'm pretty sure that's all you need, but if you have any questions or comments, feel free to review. :)

* * *

_She's a bubble bath and candles  
Baby come and kiss me  
She's a one glass of wine  
And she's feeling kinda tipsy  
_

Morgan rubbed his eyes and tried to concentrate on the files in front of him. He really, really should have been sleeping but he knew that there was only one thing that could make his insomnia evaporate and she was three thousand miles away.

It had been one hell of a week. Six days ago they had flown out to Illinois to assist in finding two kids. Their parents had been murdered but it was 36 hours before anyone noticed because the killings and kidnappings were carried out on the weekend when the parents weren't working and the kids weren't expected at school. The fact that the events occurred in Springfield, the capitol of the state, and that the father was a State Senator just added to the pressure of the case.

They had identified and located the unsubs responsible but not before the 13 year old girl had been sexually abused and murdered and the 8 year old boy was forever damaged by having to watch it all. The case brought all kinds of things up for him and the recurring nightmare he had had for years popped back up again with a vengeance. He was sure he could have dealt with it if only he could have gone home to his wife, but it was not to be. Before they had even taken off from Illinois there was word of a case in southern California and they were headed in the exact opposite direction of where he wanted to be going.

So now here he was in his hotel room trying to make sense of the words on the pages in front of him detailing the work of their latest unsub in an attempt to escape the eyes he knew would be staring at him in his dreams. It seemed selfish and callous to even think it, but he really wished this last dead girl had had her eyes closed when they found her because now he had a new figure to stare at him in his dreams and silently ask him why was he late, why didn't he save her?

If only he could just hear Penelope's voice…but he wouldn't let himself call her. With the time difference it was after one a.m. where she was and besides, she had been up as much as he had, waiting in the wings for whenever the team would need her skills. Hotch had ordered the entire team to get some rest during their last conference call with Garcia and even if he couldn't obey Hotch's orders he hoped his wife had listened to their team leader.

And yet he wasn't surprised in the least when his phone beeped signaling a text message a few minutes later. He couldn't help but smile at the words on the screen. _I know you're not sleeping. Call me._ Betting she was still at the office he decided to do her one better and set up his laptop and webcam on the hotel table. In just a couple of minutes the miracle of technology was letting him see the wife he missed so much.

"Hey, babe," she greeted him.

"You're gorgeous," he couldn't help saying. She was a sight for very sore eyes. "Why aren't you sleeping like Hotch told us to?"

She raised an eyebrow and gave him a look that let him know what a stupid question she thought that was. "I could ask you the same thing, darling."

He shrugged. "You know the real reason Hotch sent us to the hotel." While the team leader did want them to get at least a few hours of sleep, he didn't expect them all to get a full night of it. Most of them never could on a case. Tonight the only ones who were getting a full eight hours were probably the new guy Frank who had replaced Prentiss when she moved onwards and upwards not long ago because he wasn't yet used to the extensive traveling and wasn't seasoned enough to be plagued by his own nightmares and JJ because she always had to put her best possible face forward for the press every day and couldn't afford to have bags under bloodshot eyes.

No, the real reason Hotch sent them all away ostensibly for some sleep was to let the locals get some rest. There was no way the local cops and detectives would sleep if the federal agents on their turf were still working. While the BAU team was used to having to work for days at a time on minimal sleep, local departments didn't usually have to do it that often and having an entire department sleep-deprived could make everyone jumpy and trigger happy which was never a good thing because it wasn't only the unsub who could end up hurt.

"And if you all are still up, then I am, too" she asserted. "Besides, it's not like I sleep all that well without you anyway."

He rubbed his eyes and worked at not letting his guilt show at wanting to be with her for his own sake and not thinking about what their separation might be doing to her. It was mostly irrational guilt, but he felt it just the same and knew it wouldn't be a good idea to let it show because it would start a bad cycle of making her feel guilty for making him feel guilty and no good could come of that when they were both this tired. "You should at least go home and break out that bubble bath stuff you love so much and some of those aromatherapy candles or whatever and relax."

She gave him a sly smile that warmed him up from the inside before she even spoke. "That too isn't the same without you." He groaned at the images that popped unbidden into his mind. She was pure evil. But at least she had given him a better reason for not being able to fall asleep that night. "Besides," she continued, completely aware of what she had just done to him, "I always like to have a glass of wine when I have a bubble bath and I don't think that would be advisable in the middle of a case."

He laughed. "I would love to hear you talk to Hotch after you've had some wine, baby. It isn't often I get to see him flustered." For some reason even though his wife could handle hard liquors pretty easily, one glass of just about any wine made her tipsy and had her exaggerating her usual quirks. Their always imperturbable team leader sometimes had difficulty handling a sober Garcia, he didn't know how the man would react to a slightly drunk one. Her odd reactions to different forms of alcohol was just one of those little things that he loved knowing about her. He felt all the time like he was finding out new things about the enigma that was his wife and knew that fifty years from now he still wouldn't know all that there was to her and that he wouldn't have tired of looking for more.

Penelope tapped her chin with one of her fingernails. "That could be interesting. Too bad I'd probably get fired for being drunk on the job."

He smiled. "Well, if you're ever looking for a way to leave, that could be the way to go." He made the statement knowing that would likely never happen, at least not while he was still with the BAU. He sometimes felt that working for the FBI as support for their team was the only way she could really deal with the dangers of his job because she was always connected to the team and could find out what was going on with them at a moment's notice. She had actually been offered a promotion to move out of Quantico to FBI headquarters in D.C. but had turned it down to stay with him. And he loved her for it.

She smiled back. "I'll file the idea away." She glanced to the left as one of her other screens beeped at her. "That search I was doing for you guys just finished, but there are still hundreds of possibilities. I should probably try to narrow them down a bit before Gideon or Hotch calls me for the results."

He sat back in his chair and absently rubbed his wedding ring. "Honey, that can wait until tomorrow. You really do need to get some kind of rest."

"It's already tomorrow here, babe," she reminded him with a wink. "Don't worry, I fully intend to head to our humble abode for a few winks in a bit, but with the time difference I figured it made more sense for me to stay here until it was after midnight in California and the team would likely be asleep and then come in here a couple hours later than normal and be ready to go when you all are up and having breakfast."

He grinned and shook his head. "Once again I bow to the greatness that is you and your unparalleled mind, my dear. I hadn't even considered all of that."

"It must be hard being a mere mortal," she teased with a grin. He could hear the clacking of a keyboard as she worked on the search results while having a conversation with him. Her multi-tasking skills would never cease to amaze him.

"It is hard, but fortunately I have a goddess looking out for me." He sat up a little straighter. "I guess I should leave you to your work so you can finish before you head home."

The clacking halted as Garcia stopped and turned her full attention to him. "Goodnight, my sweet. And if the nightmares pop up, don't hesitate to call me, okay?"

He couldn't resist those eyes. Besides, he had made the mistake of not calling her once before when the nightmares plagued him and when she had figured it out she was more than upset. "I promise. I would never pass up one of your bedtime stories."

Hearing his promise seemed to reassure her and she dropped the serious look. "Okay then. I'll talk to you in a few hours, honey bun."

They exchanged I love you's before signing off. He sighed and ran a hand over his head. She was everything he needed to get through the night and the case and she wasn't even on the same coast. He wondered often how he had gotten through nights like this before her. It was likely youthful determination and stamina, but he was more than thankful now that he had her because those qualities weren't enough anymore. Even years ago those traits could only get him so far, but now she was everything he needed to get through whatever the next unsub threw at him and he would never stop being grateful for that fact.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN:** This chapter is a bit shorter than most of the others, but it just worked this way. We're making yet another leap forward. I don't like to put specifics on how long because I like to let people use some of their own imagination and interpretation for the story, but I would guess that it's at least a few years since the last chapter. There's really no obscure references to episodes this time. The only info you might need is that Hotch's wife's name is Haley and that they had a son partway through the first season that they named Jack.

* * *

_She's the giver I wish I could be  
And the stealer of the covers  
She's a picture in my wallet  
Of my unborn children's mother  
_

"How's she doing these days?" Morgan looked up as his team leader and friend came from the back of the plane and sat in a chair across from him. Hotch was obviously talking about the picture Derek had pulled out of his wallet. It was one of his favorites, taken the day Penelope finally had to go out and buy maternity clothes. She was smiling in the photo, standing in profile and holding the top she was wearing so her pregnancy was easily apparent.

"Garcia's great," Morgan told him. Hotch saw plenty of Penelope at the office, but everyone at Quantico had learned pretty early on after the news spread about her pregnancy that she wasn't going to talk much about it. If she started a conversation that had something to do with her physical condition then you were fine to continue with whatever discussion she started, but if you deviated from the started topic and tried to ask about something else that Garcia considered personal and private, or heaven forbid started a conversation and brought up an unallowed topic all by yourself, look out. The Penelope Garcia temper that had been a known quantity for years had nothing on Penelope Garcia-Morgan's when she was pregnant.

And that wasn't the only reason people, even Hotch, refrained from asking Garcia directly how her pregnancy was going. After ranting at some poor hapless person who dared ask whether she had felt the baby kick yet or something similar, Penelope usually felt horrible about her outburst and would proceed to cry on Derek's shoulder about how she was a horrible person and that by the time the baby was born nobody at the FBI would like her anymore and she would probably even be fired. And anyone who made his wife cry, regardless of the reason, was immediately on Morgan's shit list which was a place no one in their right mind wanted to be.

Morgan rubbed the picture with his thumb and looked up at Hotch with a smirk. "She's finally gotten over pretty much all of the morning sickness, but she's developed this weird habit of not being able to figure out whether she is hot or cold during the night. So one minute I'm woken up by my own shivering because she's taken all the covers and the next I'm being rudely awakened with a blanket in the face as she throws it off again."

The older man chuckled. "They never warn you about that stuff, do they? People tell you about the hormones and the cravings, but they don't mention the really odd stuff. Haley had some crazy quirks too and it was hard and annoying sometimes, but in the end it really is all worth it."

Morgan smiled as he looked back down at the picture. "Yeah, I know." And he really did, even if they hadn't planned on the pregnancy. With Gideon back to teaching new recruits after his involvement in a shootout had left him unable to be cleared for fieldwork and Hotch's new promotion to D.C., Morgan was being elevated to team leader at the BAU in a few months after the guy Hotch was replacing at the J. Edgar Hoover Building officially retired. It was a great opportunity that Derek was sure Aaron Hotchner had no small part in getting for him, but it was going to mean more responsibility and time spent away from home. He could have dealt with that, especially since Penelope worked with him and they saw each other every day when he wasn't traveling and talked on the phone all the time, but adding a child into the mix was a whole other ballgame. A wonderful, amazing, exciting ballgame that he was looking forward to in between bouts of being scared out of his mind, but still. It suddenly occurred to him that maybe he should pick the brain of the man across from him since he had been in the same position of having a demanding job while becoming a new father. Morgan leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. "You mind if I ask you something, Hotch?"

The dark haired man raised an eyebrow as he noticed the suddenly serious face of the other man. "Sure," he replied as he closed the file he had been perusing.

Derek rotated his wedding band around his finger. "How do you do it? How do you do the job well and yet not shortchange your child and deny them your time and attention?"

Hotch sighed and settled back a little more into his chair. "There is no real easy answer to that, Derek. The biggest advice I can give is that you just need to be a little patient in finding the balance that works for you and your family. It's a process and here and there you'll feel like you're not giving enough to either the job or your family or maybe even both, but I know you, Morgan. You're dedicated to the job and you love your family and because of that I know you'll eventually be just fine. I wouldn't have recommended you for the position if I didn't think you could do it and I considered the possibility that the two of you might start a family." He crossed one of his legs over the other and smiled. "Besides, I think you're forgetting one thing. There is no way in hell Penelope Garcia will let you slack off at home _or_ work."

Morgan laughed. "You're right about that." He gazed out the window for a moment at the clouds below them. "The only thing I'm worried about with that is how considerate Garcia is of the demands of the job. Sometimes I feel like all she does is give and all I do is take."

"Standing behind you and accepting the realities of being married to an FBI agent is not the same as letting you get away with anything. Believe me, I know. She was never pushy or anything about it because that isn't her style, but Haley would let me know when I wasn't paying enough attention to Jack and her. Like I said, it's a process, but look at me. I'm a workaholic and I've somehow made it work," he said with a self-deprecating smile.

"Yeah, maybe. I guess I'll just have to experience it to believe it completely," he responded. He smiled to lighten the mood and let Hotch get back to his files knowing that one of the strategies Hotch used to manage his time was to do as much work on their many plane rides as possible. "For now I'm just going to sleep and listen to music because thankfully for now, the job is still yours."

"Not for long," Hotch chuckled, opening up his file again. "Not for long."

Morgan relaxed back into his seat and put in his headphones to listen to a CD Garcia had made for him the week before. He hadn't had a chance to listen to it yet and he smiled as their song came on. It was just like her to do something like this for him and only one example of the million different little things she did for him. He probably didn't tell her thank-you enough for the little stuff and considering the big thing she would be bringing into the world in a few short weeks the absolute least he could was say thanks to the woman who was everything to him. He let himself drift off into a light slumber just as he considered that in addition to saying thank-you more, it probably wouldn't hurt to also bring his pregnant wife some chocolate chip cookie dough.

* * *

**P.S.** I've never been pregnant and I've never asked about specifics with those who I know that have been pregnant at some point, so I have no idea if I'm making up symptoms that are totally unrealistic. I'm just writing what comes out of my head and I hope I'm not too off-base and that at the very least it works well for the story. :) 


	9. Chapter 9

**AN:** Going forward a bit again. This section of the song is kind of serious but for some reason my head went to a fluffy place. There's a good bit about Reid in here and it would be good to know what happened in the first season episode Somebody's Watching (I don't want to say anymore for fear of ruining the suprise). I hope nobody minds. :)

* * *

_She's the hand that I'm holding  
When I'm on my knees and praying  
She's the answer to my prayer  
And she's the song that I'm playing_

Morgan didn't even look up at the knock on his door. "Come on in," he called out as he finished writing the last few lines on a report. The New York field office was looking for the team's assessment on a case and he wanted to finish it up that afternoon so they could have it by the end of the week. "I'll just be a sec," he said to whoever had just entered his office.

"Take all the time you need, sweetie. I'll just stand here and enjoy the view." Morgan quickly looked up at the voice and returned his wife's smile.

"What's up, babe?" he asked. He was happy to see her, but he hadn't been expecting the visit. They got together for lunch whenever possible, but since Garcia's new position had her working almost on the other side of the FBI's Quantico complex from the BAU neither one of them really ever had the time to trek across the campus. The unexpected promotion that only came about because the previous person had left for the private sector was great in a lot of ways, not the least of which was the regular hours that Penelope now had which enabled her to be home an a consistent basis for their son. And yet Morgan still couldn't get completely over not being able to walk down the hall to see her or talking to her while on a case. He knew not being connected to him on cases didn't make Garcia happy either, but she took it in stride as a sacrifice she had to make as a mother.

"Finish your thought. I wouldn't want the next Unabomber to get away because I distracted you." Derek chuckled and quickly finished the last sentence he had been writing, signed off on the document, and put it in his out box for one of the BAU's secretaries to get later.

"I think the world is safe now," Morgan told his wife as he stood and rounded his desk to greet her properly. Straightening after their kiss Derek gave her a grin. "You always did have the best timing, darling."

Garcia gave him a puzzled look and then understanding dawned as she heard the song that was softly playing from the speakers of Morgan's computer. Frank Mackenzie, second in command to Morgan only because Reid didn't want the position, was a bit of a music buff. He was Reid-like when it came to naming just about any artist or song title from almost any genre of music. Knowing that Derek was from Chicago and one day hearing the team leader tell his wife that she was his inspiration, Mac, as everyone called him, couldn't help but put together a CD of hits by the group Chicago including the perfectly named Inspiration and giving it to Morgan. Derek couldn't believe he had never thought to apply the song to her before since his mother was a huge Chicago fan and he had grown up with the music, but he loved applying it to his wife now.

Penelope smiled up at her husband. "Omniscience is part of the goddess package, babe. Right along with the beauty and the handsome hero as a consort."

Derek laughed and sat on the edge of his desk, still holding her left hand in his right. "I stand corrected. So, why are you here? I can't imagine they'd let you get too far away without a good reason."

The blonde snorted. "I'm their boss. They don't have much of a choice." She held up the file she had been holding in her right hand. "Knowing how slow the in house courier system can be and how you were hoping to get this sooner rather than later, I thought I'd walk this over. Besides, I wanted to harass Reid a little bit."

"Angel, you are an answer to prayer," Derek said fervently as he took the folder. Garcia's replacement at the BAU was decent enough and did fairly well at the immediate tasks the team needed while on a case, albeit not as fast as Garcia though that was to be expected, but he tended to get a little overwhelmed sometimes and occasionally Penelope helped out a bit and picked up some of the slack.

"Trust me, I'm working on ways you can pay me back later," Penelope assured him. He didn't doubt that but didn't mind considering her payback demands usually ended up being just as pleasurable for him as they were for her.

As he set the file on the desk behind him the rest of his wife's words finally penetrated his brain. "What are you harassing Reid about this time? Or is this just a general thing?"

Garcia rolled her eyes. "It worries me sometimes how you let yourself get so involved in the crazy psychos that you lose track of what is happening in the world." She went around his desk to his computer and after hitting a few keys brought up a website. She turned the monitor so he could see it from where he was.

He read the title of the page and was still confused. "Okay, so I didn't realize the Golden Globe nominations were coming out today, but what does this have to do with Spencer Reid? Has he been acting on the side and I didn't know about it?"

He was treated to another roll of the eyes and a light smack across the back of his head. "Read the nominations, Derek."

He did as he was told and at first was only struck by how none of the movie titles were even all that familiar to him. Being team leader at the BAU and a husband and father didn't leave much time for seeing the newest blockbusters. Finally as he reached the nominees for actress in a supporting role the light bulb went off. "You're kidding me. Seriously?"

Garcia grinned. "Seriously. Do you think she'll ask him to the event?"

Derek inwardly winced. Penelope loved the relationship Reid had with the actress Lila Archer that had begun years ago when the BAU team had worked on a case involving her. The two never made anything serious of it since neither a busy Hollywood actress nor a high level FBI agent had the time to sustain a long distance relationship, but they had become good friends and occasionally saw each other when one or the other managed some vacation time. For the most part that was fine and Morgan was happy for Reid.

But ever since Lila had moved up in the world of Hollywood and began getting bigger and bigger roles things had become a little more…complicated. The entertainment papers and shows wanted to know who all the guys were that Lila associated with, Reid included. The FBI's PR office hadn't minded the calls at first, but when Reid accompanied her to the opening for the movie she had now been nominated for, the shit had hit the fan. One of the photographers at the event actually grabbed Lila when she didn't stop so he could take her picture and Reid had stepped in. He didn't really do anything other than take the guy's hand off of her and tell him to back off, but it still caused an uproar. Morgan was just glad that Reid hadn't been wearing his gun because the usually mild-mannered man could get as angry as any man at watching someone he cared about being manhandled and skinny or not, Reid was FBI trained. Most of the press was good because people liked the image of Reid being Lila's protector, but it had caused a minor media storm and Lila's people did nothing to stem the tide since any press for Lila was a good thing in their eyes. So, poor Reid had been hounded even all the way back in Virginia culminating in one resourceful paparazzo actually making an unauthorized breach onto the FBI's Quantico campus. The man had met the guard dogs in an unpleasant fashion and the ironic thing was that the team had been on a case in Texas at the time and Reid was thousands of miles away from the man and his camera.

Morgan had taken a little heat about the whole thing but for the most part had taken the position that Reid's personal life was his own and the FBI couldn't tell him how to conduct his personal life. He might have to revise his position on that a little bit and advise him not to go to the Golden Globes ceremony if Lila asked though. On a couple of their last cases Reid had actually been approached by people wanting his autograph on a picture of him and Lila. So far it hadn't caused any real problems, but he couldn't have Reid or anyone else for that matter distracted by something like that while on a case that could be life or death for innocent people.

But he wouldn't mention any of that to Garcia. He would freely admit that sometimes when it came to her he was a complete and utter coward. "I don't know. What I do know is that I think I'll join you in that harassing. Reid didn't mention the big news at our staff meeting this morning." He grinned evilly. "I think a general announcement to the bullpen is in order, don't you?"

Penelope leaned over and kissed him before coming around the desk to take his hand and pull him from the room. "I love it when you get all mischievous on me."

Morgan just grinned and followed his wife out of his office. Life around Penelope Garcia-Morgan was never boring. She was quite the roller coaster ride and he loved every minute of it. What she did to him almost drove him to his knees in thankfulness sometimes. If someone had told him back when he was a young, cocky agent just out of training that one woman would become everything to him and that just a visit from her could brighten his whole day he would have laughed in their face. But he was well and truly addicted to the rush that was Garcia and he planned to never lose that high.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: **We're at the part of the song where the chorus repeats. I could have skipped it, but a story idea came to me for it, so I went with the idea. Like the chorus is a repeat from earlier in the song, this chapter has correlations with the previous chorus chapter. The only show knowledge you need is the stuff about Morgan's family you needed for the previous chorus chapter. Otherwise I think the movement forward that the timeline has taken once again is pretty self-explanatory. Hopefully it all works for everyone. There is some strong language in this chapter, but I felt it was necessary. Anyway, on with the story!

* * *

_And she's everything I ever wanted  
And everything I need  
I talk about her, I go on and on and on  
'Cause she's everything to me_

Morgan took the next plate down out of the cupboard and paused when he noticed the slight nick in it. He fingered it and let his mind wander back to when he put that imperfection into his mother's plate. He had been twelve years old and trying to do something nice for Mother's Day. He ended up making a huge mess in the kitchen and accidentally took a chip out of one of the plates his parents had been given as a wedding present. Instead of being woken up by breakfast in bed, his mother had found him sobbing on the kitchen floor trying to hold the tears back knowing a man wasn't supposed to cry but inconsolable after breaking something he knew his mother treasured, especially since his father's death.

She must have taken one look around that kitchen and known what he was doing because she didn't say a word. She just sat on the floor and held him for a few moments and then proceeded to help him clean the kitchen and make a breakfast that they shared together. Most accidents and embarrassments like that were passed around the family until they almost became legend, but that particular incident was never mentioned to anyone by him or his mom. The only acknowledgement that it had ever even happened was that she gave him the nicked plate whenever she got out the precious china.

Derek blinked back tears as he picked up some newspaper to wrap the dish in. It seemed just about everything he touched evoked some kind of memory. He just wanted to walk away and let someone else do the packing, but he felt he needed to be strong for his sisters.

"Daddy, Daddy!" Morgan turned as his son came running into the kitchen. Full speed ahead was about the only speed Robbie knew.

"What's up kiddo," he replied as leaned down to intercept the little boy and pick him up. He also moved a few steps away from the counter and the breakable stuff on it. Robert Derek Morgan had an unfortunate knack for breaking things. His mother flatly denied that the trait could have come from her.

"Mommy says you need to come and see something!" Robbie leaned backward in his father's arms and pointed out towards the living room. Sometimes holding his son was like trying to keep a grip on a live wire.

"Okay, okay, let's go see what Mommy has." He walked out to the other room and sat down next to his wife on the couch. He had been glad his sisters insisted on Penelope taking it easy on the sofa wrapping anything breakable they brought to her in newspaper and bubble wrap. Being pregnant could be tiring enough when you have a three year old running around you. Add to that flying out to Chicago with your husband to support him during a funeral and all the arrangements and she needed to rest a bit. Even Robbie seemed to notice his mother's tiredness as he had been fairly content to sit next to his mother and listen to her read to him most of the day. That is, when he wasn't having fun jumping on his grandmother's bed. "Hey, babe," he greeted his wife, leaning over to give her a brief kiss and settling his son on his lap.

She grinned at him in a way that never failed to make him smile back at her. Life was never boring around Garcia and her smile often indicated what kind of trip he was about to embark on. This look was definitely one of her more mischievous ones.

"Look what Desiree found," she said as she picked up something from beside her and handed it to him. He groaned good-naturedly.

"And of course my dear sister had to show it to you," he replied as he opened the photo album so they could see what was inside it. He pointed to the first picture. "Guess who that is, Robbie."

"Me?" the little boy asked. It was a reasonable question since the only baby pictures he had seen before had been of himself.

"Nope, that's daddy. Wasn't he a cute baby?" Penelope teased.

"Cutest in the world as a matter of fact," Derek shot back, pointing at the shirt he was wearing while lying in the hospital incubator that declared he was indeed the World's Cutest Baby.

"Ah, so the ego thing was something you've had forever and not something you picked up at the Academy." His wife was going to get the most enjoyment possible out of the situation.

"Oh, he comes by it naturally," Sarah said as she entered the room. "Mom used to kid Dad about the same thing all the time and lament the habits he was passing down to his son." Robbie had obviously become bored with looking at his father's baby pictures as he wriggled free and slid down to the floor. "Hey buddy," Sarah began, crouching down to be closer to her nephew's level, "your Aunt Desiree and I were thinking that ice cream sounded really good right about now. Why don't you ask your dad if he has any money and the three of us will walk down the street for some?"

Derek rolled his eyes as his son came bounding over begging for ice cream money. "Nice, sis, real nice," he muttered as he pulled out his wallet. The women just laughed at him.

"Get used to it, little brother. Handing out cash is just a part of being a dad," she told him unrepentantly. Desiree came into the room and his sisters grabbed their purses while his son put on his shoes and carefully pulled over the little Velcro strips to secure them tightly. His next pair of shoes would probably have laces on them. Derek was proud of how fast his son matured and how good he was at learning new things, but his heart still hurt a little at the small things that pointed out how his son was growing up. He shook his head and looked back down at the album in his lap. The last few days must have made him overly sentimental.

Garcia leaned her head on his shoulder as the place became suddenly quiet. "How are you holding up?" she asked quietly.

He sighed softly and turned another page. It was a hard question to answer. "Okay," he tried to reassure her, taking her hand and briefly bringing it up to brush against his lips. He was okay, if only because she was by his side. He couldn't imagine having to go through this week without her.

Penelope had actually told him the news. He had been in a meeting with some higher-ups in D.C. including Hotch and had set his phone to silent. A secretary had popped in and spoken into Hotch's ear since he was closest to the door and he had excused both he and Morgan from the meeting. Derek had figured some big case had broken open and they needed the BAU team to leave immediately. He had been shocked to see his wife standing outside the meeting room. He was even more shocked when she gave him the news after Hotch ushered them into the privacy of his office.

He was lucky that he had such good friends and colleagues because he was somewhat numb and operating on autopilot after that. Hotch made sure that Derek could take as much time as he needed and also made calls for Garcia. Frank called to let him know the team would be fine in his absence and Reid and JJ called to let him know they would do their part to hold down the fort and also that if they weren't out on a time sensitive case, they would be in Chicago for the funeral.

Hotch even thought to call ahead and have someone from the Chicago field office pick them up at the airport. Knowing Derek's need for information their escort had also been asked to bring a file with him that contained all the details about the bastard who had killed Fran Morgan. Said bastard was lucky that CPD had already picked him up. Bystanders had caught the license plate number of the vehicle that blew a stop sign and crashed into his mother as she was driving out to meet Sarah for some shopping. Her little car had been no match for his monster pickup truck. The SOB hadn't even been legally drunk. He was a little buzzed and talking on his cellphone and didn't notice the stop sign. Hank Pritchard took off and ended up leading the police on a bit of a chase after they caught up to him, but was eventually apprehended and currently sat in Cook County jail. Morgan half wished he was still on the loose. If he had found the piece of shit before the police did, the man wouldn't have had a chance for his day in court.

It scared him a little to know that he wanted the man's death so badly. He supposed it was only to be expected. He always was a bit quick to anger. Penelope had sensed that fury inside of him and done her best to soothe him and get him to release the tension in less destructive ways. On the flip side, she had also made some calls and made sure that the full effect of the law came hammering down on the head of Mr. Pritchard. Hotch had even called the Chief of Police in Chicago and extended any FBI assistance they might need in processing evidence or anything. And when it became apparent that reporters were going to feel the need to write and talk about the story, Hotch had it cleared for JJ to come out and be liaison for their family for a few days. She had handled any needed press conferences and was keeping in touch with those working on the case. It all boiled down to a lot of pressure coming down onto Hank Pritchard, not that Derek cared. The man could rot in hell for all he cared.

But court proceedings and whatnot were worries for another day. Now that the funeral was over he was helping his sisters pack up all of their mother's things and dealing with anything else that needed handling. For now they were just storing everything at Sarah's house since she had the room for it except for one or two things he and Desiree would be taking. Eventually they would have to go through the belongings in more detail, but he couldn't spare more time from the BAU and was flying back in the morning with Penelope and Robbie. Even if he had the time he didn't know if he could have stayed longer. He was just barely holding it together as it was.

He finally managed to wrench his attention back to the present and flipped another page in his baby album. "What's this?" his wife asked as she picked up some loose pieces of paper that had been between two of the album pages.

He opened the folded paper to confirm that it was what he thought it was and then folded it back up again. "Do you remember the first time I told you I loved you?" he asked, turning toward the blonde woman next to him.

She smiled at him and brushed her fingers against his cheek, not even questioning the change in topic. "Of course. How could I forget you kissing me senseless in the middle of Dulles? I've always thought that airport to be romantic ever since then."

He chuckled lightly before looking down. "Did I ever tell you why I suddenly felt the need to tell you how I felt about you?"

"No," she admitted. "I always figured it had something to do with the crap you had gone through that week."

"Reasonable assumption," he said, "but incorrect." He rubbed a photo in the book of his mother holding him in her hospital bed moments after his birth. She looked exhausted and exhilirated all at the same time. "It was actually the day before all that crap hit the fan. My mom hounded me about how much I was talking about you."

Garcia smirked at him a little. "Talking about me, huh? I guess that's to be expected, I am a pretty interesting topic of conversation."

"You are at that, darling," he agreed. "But she could tell it wasn't just idle chitchat. I of course being a stubborn guy didn't want to admit anything, but then…then she brought this out," he said, holding up the pieces of paper. "It's something she wrote not long after I was born." He looked at Penelope and then handed her the pages. "You should read it," he told her, then got up and walked to the window and looked out, arms folded.

He gazed out on the streets realizing it could be one of the last times he ever looked out from this window. It was almost surreal. He could almost smell the scent of hot chocolate wafting from the kitchen and believe that his mother was still alive. She hadn't even gotten to meet her newest granddaughter, didn't even get to know that Derek's second child was going to be a girl. They had just found out a few days before the accident and hadn't decided yet whether they were going to tell anyone.

He welcomed the feel of his wife's arms around him as she came from behind and held him. He could feel her tears through his shirt that matched the ones running down his cheeks. He closed his eyes and silently talked to his mom. He hadn't been able to bring himself to say good-bye to her at the cemetery, but now with his wife's arms around him he felt the strength required to do what he needed to do. _I hope you're happy up there, Mom, probably making hot chocolate for all of the other angels. I'm sure you've already found Dad and are helping him look out for us. I'm going to miss you more than I thought possible, but at least you don't have to worry about me. Penelope is here to take care of me now that you can't. You've left me in good hands, Mom._ He turned and hugged his wife tightly and rested his head on top of hers. "You know, the last time she saw us she told me again how right I was, that you are everything she could have ever wanted for me and more." His voice broke on the last words and he couldn't go on. They just stood there crying together as the world kept turning around them and he held on tightly to his rock, his beacon in every storm life threw at him and he knew his mother was looking down, happy that her little boy had someone who would be there for him.


	11. Chapter 11

**AN:** This is about as light a chapter as one can get. It's downright fluffy. No random show knowledge is really necessary beyond what you've already needed for this story. We've leaped ahead again about three years. Enjoy!

* * *

_She's the voice I love to hear  
Someday when I'm ninety  
She's that wooden rocking chair  
I want rocking right beside me_

"Mommy, Mommy, Blue is outside! Can I go pet him?" Robbie was jumping up and down in a way that usually indicated he needed to use the restroom, but in this case illustrated his enthusiasm over seeing his favorite plaything, their neighbor's dog. Fortunately Mr. Hirsch didn't mind because he lived alone now and he loved seeing Robbie since his own grandchildren lived too far away for frequent visits. And Old Blue was about the kindest and gentlest dog Derek had ever encountered. The mutt of indeterminate origins somehow tolerated having a hyper six year old crawl all over him and would occasionally even consent to a game of fetch.

"Only if Mr. Hirsch says it's okay, Robbie," Penelope told him. Their son barely waited for her to finish speaking before sprinting off to his surrogate grandfather to ask for permission. "How that boy manages to have that much energy after spending a day at the park is beyond me."

Morgan laughed and threw an arm around his wife's shoulders as he pushed his daughter's stroller down the sidewalk with his other hand. "This coming from the woman who has boundless stores of energy. He gets it from you, you know. Megan here," he said, indicating the sleeping form of their daughter in the stroller he was pushing, "has the right idea and obviously takes after me." Megan Francine Morgan, his little M&M, had been drooping for awhile before they left the park and was already sleeping soundly by the time he had set her in the stroller for the walk home.

"Oh, I beg to differ. He's already a hit with the ladies, which is a trait he had to have picked up from you." Her eyes twinkled as she looked up at him. They had had almost the exact conversation many times before and yet they still loved to tease each other about which traits their children had picked up from whom.

It was days like this that he treasured the most. A day off that had somehow mercifully not been interrupted by a call from work. An entire day with no plan other than to spend it with his family. The four of them had gone to the park earlier in the day and had a picnic. Garcia played in the sand with Meg while he threw a ball around with Robbie. Later his heart had swelled with pride when his son had carefully guided his little sister up the stairs of the playground equipment and gone down the slide with her. Several pictures had been taken to remember the day by and he knew that within the week he would have one or more of them up somewhere in his office.

And now the day was ending with one of his favorite activities, a walk around the neighborhood. It was a habit Garcia had had long before they even dated and one he had quickly come to love. Before the kids came along they would often go on walks even if they came home late. Nowadays he didn't often get to join in because the kids were likely to be in bed or getting ready for it when he got home, so he looked forward to any opportunity he had to take part in the old tradition and since Robbie still had some energy to work off before they got home they were taking a somewhat meandering route back. Derek hoped his son would be ready for a nap when the walk was over because he wouldn't mind some alone time with his wife to cap off a great day.

"Hello, Penelope! And Derek, how nice to see you! Enjoying the beautiful day I see." Derek slowed to a stop and turned towards the voice calling to them from across the street.

"Hello, Mrs. Weatherly. It is a beautiful day, isn't it?" Penelope called back. The elderly woman who lived down the street from them was a bit of a busybody, but not so much that anyone really minded. Derek couldn't remember the last time he had passed her house when she and/or her husband weren't occupying the rocking chairs on their front porch and keeping track of the goings on in the neighborhood. The area they had chosen to raise their kids in was a mix of young families and older folks and an assortment of races and backgrounds in a quiet neighborhood that was about as far from the noisy city streets he had grown up in as one could get. And yet, he loved it. The peace and stillness might be looked down on by some, but it was a welcome respite from the rest of his life that he welcomed and he appreciated not having to worry as much about the safety of his family. The worst thing that had happened around here in a long time was the Manetti twins riding their bikes through Mrs. Weatherly's flowers. She had been livid for weeks, only somewhat mollified when the kids' mother made them come by and replant her garden.

"That it is. Still keeping the world safe for the rest of us, Derek?" Mrs. Weatherly seemed to take great pride in being able to tell people that she knew an FBI agent. She had actually cornered him once and gotten him to speak at the senior center she frequented to play cards with friends. It had been an interesting experience to say the least but not one he was looking to repeat anytime soon.

"I do my best, Mrs. Weatherly. Where's Mr. Weatherly today?" He had learned early on that asking questions was a good way to divert her from asking too many of her own.

"Oh, he's inside, can't take the heat these days. He'll probably come out when the sun goes down a bit and it's cooled off."

"We should probably get out of the heat ourselves. We'll see you soon!" Penelope called out with a wave and they began moving down the sidewalk again as the elderly woman called out her goodbye. "I'm sure it's the heat and not her voice he wanted to be away from," Garcia muttered as they walked away. Morgan smiled and tried not to laugh. Ever since the older woman had made the mistake of giving Garcia advice on how she could lose weight, Penelope hadn't been overly charitable towards her. She would get over it eventually, but for now it just meant that his usually effervescent wife was somewhat abrupt with the other woman and since he didn't want to get roped into another speaking engagement he wasn't going to complain. But that didn't mean he wouldn't tease.

"I don't know. Sitting with you in rocking chairs fifty years from now seems pretty good to me." He squeezed her shoulders again and took the hand she put up near his.

"As if either of us could ever slow down enough to spend time rocking in chairs. I see us as being much more likely to sit next to each other in lounge chairs on a cruise ship when we're ninety in between scuba diving and sight seeing rather than languishing in rocking chairs on our front porch."

He smiled down at her. "Fifty years sounds about right for us to actually be able to afford a cruise after putting two kids through college. Besides, either works for me, babe, as long as you're there." He leaned down and kissed his wife and it quickly became a little too heated for the public sidewalk. He pulled back before they ended up giving Mrs. Weatherly a show. It had been _way_ too long since he and his wife had spent some "quality" time together. "What do you say we collect Robbie and go home and put the kids to bed?"

As always his wife was one step of ahead of him. "What do you say we ask Mr. Hirsch if he'll baby-sit and I show you how glad I am that we're not ninety quite yet."

He'd had the thought before, but it still held true. Sometimes she was pure evil. He had to bite back a groan. "I'd take you up on that if I didn't think Robbie would cause Mr. Hirsch to break the hip he just had replaced not too long ago."

Penelope laughed. He loved that sound and he loved the fact that his daughter had inherited it. She was a lot like her mother and he was wrapped around her finger because of it. "Why don't you head straight home and get Meggie put away in bed and our picnic stuff put away and I'll get Robbie and meet you there. I think our son may actually be in the mood for a nap as long as I don't say the word 'nap' in front of him."

Derek gave her another quick kiss before replying, "You're on," and pushing Megan down the street towards their home while Penelope diverted to Mr. Hirsch's front yard. He didn't know quite how they did it, but his family could make him completely forget about the stack of cases on his desk and the reports filled with grisly descriptions of death that he had to finish. He knew this inner peace was due in no small part to Penelope Garcia-Morgan. Robbie and Meg wouldn't even exist without her and it was she who maintained their unbelievably wonderful home life. He owed her everything. Ten years ago he would not have pictured his life ending up this way, but here he was and he couldn't be happier. She had given him everything and he selfishly hoped she would continue to do so for the next fifty years or more.


	12. Chapter 12

**AN:** This chapter took forever for me to write and I'm still not positive that I'm in love with how it turned out, but hopefully you all will enjoy it. There's no background you really need beyond what is in the previous chapters. There is only one or two more chapters to go before this story is finished.

* * *

_Everyday that passes  
I only love her more  
Yeah, she's the one  
That I'd lay down my own life for_

Derek slowly rose towards consciousness first becoming aware of voices talking around him. He couldn't seem to focus enough to figure out what they were saying or even if he recognized the voices. Somehow his brain didn't seem to be alarmed by that. Instead, he moved on and attempted to learn anything else about his immediate surroundings.

After his eyes refused to open he relied on his other senses. From the way he was being jostled he concluded that he had to be moving, probably inside of some kind of vehicle. Why he was moving was a whole other matter but his mind wasn't up to handling harder questions at the moment.

Much of his body felt numb. His consciousness seemed relieved about that. But not everything was devoid of feeling. It took awhile but he eventually realized that someone was holding his hand. In an effort to communicate with whoever was there he focused all of his will on squeezing that hand. It didn't amount to much but it was enough. The person holding his hand recognized his action and squeezed back. He thought he heard his name called out franticly, desperately, but everything faded again as the vehicle he was in jostled him a little too hard this time and he plunged back into darkness, the last sound he heard being his own voice shouting in pain.

___"You would think with all the computers around him that have the time right on them that he could manage to get here when he's supposed to," muttered the brunette to his left. Morgan smiled briefly but didn't look up from his file or reply. Other members of the team weren't as willing to let the comment slide. _

___"JT is there when we really need him, George, and he's good at what he does. Nobody's perfect. I don't complain about how loud you tap your pen all the time to the point of giving me a migraine." Except where he just did complain. Morgan wanted to roll his eyes but restrained himself. Tony Sinclair wouldn't know tact if it hit him upside the head. Morgan still held out hope that his two newest agents would learn to coexist a little better but he was worried it wouldn't be possible considering how much alike they were   
_

___Before George had a chance to retort back, the aforementioned JT came rushing into the room. "Boss!" The younger man doubled over with a hand to his side and tried to catch his breath. _

___"Calm down," Derek told him, setting his folder on the table. "You're only five minutes late this time, JT, which is an improvement for you.   
_

___"No, sir, that's not…that's not it." He took a couple more deep breaths. "I was talking with…with someone downstairs at the front desk on my…my way in and…" _

___"And what, Jake?" Morgan was starting to get a bad feeling. JT rarely got worked up about anything. He was as close to a surfer dude as the FBI had probably ever employed   
_

___"And a call came into the front desk. The whole complex has been put on alert, there's been some kind of breach. I ran all the way up the stairs because I knew you wouldn't be in your office to get the call." _

___"Damn," Derek sighed, rising from his chair. Some paparazzo must not have gotten the message that Reid worked in the LA office these days and made it onto the compound again. "I'll go find out what it's all about-   
_

___"Sir, I know what it's about," JT told him, stopping his boss with a hand to his chest. "Someone…someone took an agent's gun and is holding some people hostage." _

___"What? How is that possible? Who would do that?" George questioned, asking what was on all their minds in that moment   
_

___"Okay guys," Derek said, switching gears quickly, "suit up and be ready to go, they'll probably want us to talk to the person and negotiate the release of the hostages. JJ, you should probably head to the PR office and see what you can do to help, this is going to cause a lot of noise when it gets out. Maybe call Hotch and give him a heads up." He turned to walk from the room but was still blocked from doing so. "Is there something else, JT? I'm going to need you in your office coordinating all of the video feeds from the security cameras." _

___"Yes, sir, but there's one more thing." He paused seeming to not want to go on but was encouraged to do so by the look on Morgan's face. "It's just that, sir, well…thebreachoccuurredwhereyourwifeworks.   
_

___"Say that again?" Morgan was pretty sure he had caught the other man's words, but he wanted to be 100 positive. _

___JT took a deep breath and forced himself to say it again, though not quite able to meet the taller man's eyes. "I wasn't able to get much information before I ran up here, but the breach…the breach occurred in the department where your wife works."_

The next time he rose up to awareness it was much more peaceful. There were no voices, the only sound he heard being some kind of beeping. His body was still numb though he could tell there was something off about it. He thanked God that at least he didn't seem to be moving anymore. He would never take for granted the act of being stationary ever again.

But why was he here? His mind finally felt willing to think back and try to connect the pieces. The first thing that came to him was the usual weekly team meeting to go over new cases and assign them to various members of the team and/or decide if any needed the immediate attention of the whole team. Mac and JJ were discussing, or rather bickering, over something about football while they all waited for JT, a.k.a. Jake Turner, to show up. He was used to waiting for their absent minded computer tech, but the newest member of the team still hadn't managed to get over her annoyance about the man's quirk and was tapping her pen on the file in front of her in annoyance and frustration. Nobody could replace Reid after he finally decided to move out to LA and make his relationship with Lila permanent, but Georgina Russell, or George as she liked to be called, was a good agent, if a bit impatient at times. It was these kinds of times he realized how Hotch must have felt when Morgan was acting a little childish by picking on Reid like he was a kid brother or something similar.

Derek prodded himself to move on and remember more. JT had run in and informed them of the security breach. Morgan had immediately hustled from the room, Mac right behind him, heading directly for the stairs not wanting to wait for the elevator. The entire way to the other side of the complex Derek had sent up prayers that Penelope wasn't there, that she hadn't been in the vicinity of whatever was happening. And yet he had a feeling deep in his gut that she was there and in real danger.

___"__Taylor__!" Derek ran up to Chuck Taylor, head of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, down the hallway from Garcia's department where a bunch of agents had gathered, many of them at the ready in assault gear. "What's the situation?" Morgan asked trying not to let on how heavily he was breathing   
_

___It was obviously going badly just by the look _ _Taylor__ gave him. "We've got a disgruntled employee who has taken his boss hostage." He paused as some words came over his earpiece, gave some instructions to his men, then pulled Derek a little more to the side of the hallway. "The boss is your wife, Morgan. We don't have all the details yet, but according to someone else from the department who was allowed to leave, Garcia had this guy fired last week for poor work and being sloppy with security when he took some of that work home. He came in today to clear out the last of his stuff and to sign some paperwork and got into an argument with your wife and when an agent came to talk to her about something, this guy grabbed the agent's gun, shot him, and dragged your wife into her office." _

___Derek felt his knees almost give out. Mac must have noticed because he gripped his boss' arm as support. But Morgan gathered himself quickly. It was unlikely that Taylor would let him work the situation considering his connection to it, but if he broke down now he would be pushed back even farther and he needed to be as close to Penelope as possible. "My people can help you negotiate with the guy, Chuck. Mac here has done a lot on hostage negotiation. __"_

___Taylor__ eyed them, then nodded. "Okay. You stay here at the command post. Mac, you're with me." The two men walked off, Mac receiving body armor from a nearby agent. Derek was left leaning against the wall, hoping and praying he wouldn't have to go home today and tell his kids that they had lost their mother. _

Derek lost his train of thought as he sunk back into oblivion, only to find the train again in the form of a nightmare.

___"He wants to talk to you," Mac said grimly. Apparently the disgruntled former employee had seen pictures in Garcia's office of their family and figured out that Morgan was an agent. He probably wanted to talk to his hostage's spouse figuring that was his best chance of getting out of the situation. _

___"Fine, then let's go." Derek had been fighting the urge to just barge in ever since he had arrived on scene. The only thing stopping him had been the fear that the guy would shoot wildly if startled like that and accidentally hit Penelope. But if the guy wanted to talk to him, then Morgan was completely willing   
_

___"I don't know, Derek." _ _Taylor__ looked uncomfortable. He knew how he would feel if it was his wife, but he also knew that protocol existed for a reason. _

___"He hasn't asked to see me, just talk." Not that Morgan would turn down the chance to go in   
_

___Reluctantly the HRT commander agreed. And when the unsub, now identified as Fred Akers, demanded that Morgan come into the office, Derek was only too happy to oblige, rushing past the HRT guys before they could react to someone coming through their ranks from the rear. _

"How the hell did something like this happen?" Morgan recognized the voice of his former boss, Aaron Hotchner. Even though his voice was somewhat hushed out of deference to their surroundings, his anger could be clearly discerned.

"It happened because a careless agent let his weapon be taken from him. If he wasn't already shot I'd think about shooting him myself." Frank Mackenzie would never actually do something like that, but he could definitely scare the crap out of most people. Morgan heard his second in command sigh. "As for Derek rushing in and ending up shot, I should have anticipated him pulling a stunt like that."

"Anticipating it isn't the same as stopping it from happening," Hotch assured Mac.

"Yeah, well...anyway, protection has been set up on the Morgan kids just to be safe, right?"

"Yeah. It looks like this guy was acting on his own, but it doesn't hurt to have the kids watched for now. They're at Penelope's parents' house."

Why would his kids be with their grandparents and not their mother? Derek searched his mind trying to remember anything that had happened after he had rushed into the hostage situation but couldn't come up with any more information than he had already been able to recall. His wife wasn't here or he was sure she would be talking along with the two men and she was apparently not with their kids, so where…Derek's heart started to beat in overdrive as he contemplated the next logical conclusion. His eyes shot open as the monitor attached to his heart began registering his agitation.

"Penelope? Where's Penelope?" He started to try and sit up, the two men in the room quickly coming over and trying to restrain him. He didn't hear what the men were saying as he continued to struggle against their hands. "Where's my wife? Penelope!"

More people began rushing into the room and trying to get him back down. Finally the face he wanted to see was in front of him.

"Derek! I'm here, I'm fine, everything is fine, baby," Penelope soothed as she got to the bed and took his face in her hands. Eventually her touch calmed him and he was settled back down on the bed and his heart monitor started going back to normal.

"Oh god, Penelope, when I woke up and you weren't here…" He trailed off as he lifted a shaky hand to touch her cheek and wipe away the tears that were flowing freely.

"I'm here, darling. I was just filling out some more of the endless paperwork, but I'm here now and I'm not leaving." Neither noticed as the others in the room quietly filed out. Penelope tried to smile through her tears but she was close to sobbing by this point. "I'm so glad you finally decided to open those beautiful eyes of yours."

"Sorry," Morgan murmured. His voice was noticeably scratchy and his wife poured some water in a cup and let him sip it through a straw.

"The scratchiness is from the tube they had to put in for awhile," Garcia told him. She perched on the edge of his bed, careful not to jostle him, and wiped some of the tears from her eyes. "And you should be sorry. What were you thinking, Derek?"

"I honestly don't know, Penelope. The last thing I can remember is coming in when the guy wanted me to, but from then on everything is blank."

His wife grabbed a Kleenex from the table next to his bed and blew her nose. "You took two bullets for me, Derek. You nearly died for me and how was I supposed to deal with that?" She really started sobbing then, releasing all the emotions that she had bottled up for the past 36 hours when she had had to be strong for her kids and her husband. But now that it looked like Derek would be okay, she just couldn't hold it all back anymore.

Morgan gently tugged her head down to his shoulder. He didn't have the strength to be insistent about it, but she didn't need much encouragement. "It's okay, babe. I'm going to be fine," he soothed. He didn't quite know what to say. He still couldn't really remember what happened, but he didn't doubt his wife's account. He'd known for a long time that he would give his life to save his wife or his kids if it was ever necessary.

Penelope brought her head back up. "Promise me you won't ever scare me like that again, Derek. I can't do this without you, I can't be a widow and a single parent. Our kids needs you, I need you."

Morgan stroked her cheek. "I can't promise that, honey, you know I can't. I would lay my life down for you if necessary every time." He covered her lips with his fingers when she started talking again. "What I can promise is that I will do everything in my power to come back home to you. I'm still here, aren't I? And I plan on being around for decades to come, baby, so get used to it." He smiled at her as strong as he could manage and she couldn't help but smile back.

She leaned back down and snuggled up against his shoulder as best she could without hurting him. "I know, Derek, I just…I can't imagine life without you." He didn't answer because what could he say? Even if he retired from the FBI tomorrow he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't someday again have to make the decision to put his life in danger to save his wife and the choice wouldn't be a hard one. He would choose Penelope every time.

But he knew what she meant. He couldn't imagine life without her either. He fell in love with her over and over and more and more with each passing day. Deep down he knew that was probably part of the reason he was willing to die for her. Most of it had to do with just loving her so much that he wanted to save her from any and all pain no matter the cost to himself. But a smaller part had to do with how she was everything to him and he just couldn't see himself being able to go on without her. If God forbid he did lose her he would pull himself together as much as possible for their kids, but a part of him would be gone forever and he would never really be the same. But for now he refused to think about might-have-beens and what-ifs and just focused on the feeling of holding his wife in his arms. That feeling was everything to him right now and he could deal with anything as long as he still had that.


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: **Wow, sorry about how long it's taken me to post the last couple of chapters. Maybe it makes a certain kind of sense considering the jump in time this chapter is going to take from that which precedes it. But anyway, I just wanted to make sure that I concluded this fic before anything in the new season messed up my storyline and timeline too badly. This chapter is the second to last one and I will do my best to have the last chapter posted before the season three premiere. There is nothing new from the show that you need to know beyond what you already needed to know for previous chapters. Oh, and I apologize for a possible excess of sappiness, but, well, it's where my mind went and besides, why not a little sappiness? Goodness knows I like it and I hope you do too. :)

**Disclaimer: **It's been so long that I should probably restate that all disclaimers still apply for both the show and the song that I've used as my inspiration. I do not own any part of _Criminal Minds_ or Brad Paisley's song, "Everything."

* * *

_And she's everything I ever wanted  
And everything I need  
She's everything to me  
Yeah she's everything to me_

Derek Morgan looked around the room and for probably the hundredth time that night thanked the Lord for the life he had been blessed to lead. Fifty years had gone by so fast and now here he was sitting next to his wife surrounded by the many friends and colleagues they had accumulated in that time.

He couldn't quite believe his kids had managed to pull this off. They had told he and Penelope that they wanted to take them out to dinner for their anniversary and not once had Derek suspected that it would be more than dinner with their kids and grandkids. He should have known better. Robbie and Megan might not have planned something this big, but Darcy Garcia Morgan had been a surprise since the day Penelope had told him she was pregnant again, ten years after Megan was born, and Darcy had proudly continued that tradition of shock and awe her entire life. Derek should have suspected she would have something else up her sleeve.

But this…the large dining hall was filled with everyone that had been important in their lives and some who they only knew tangentially. There were former FBI bigwigs that he and Garcia had worked with over the years as the two of them rose in the ranks of the FBI. There were also some current bigwigs who had worked below them at one point or another. There were even members of several other law enforcement communities and even one U.S. Congressman that they had worked with over the years.

And while many in those groups were good friends, Derek treasured the most those from his days in the Behavioral Analysis Unit. Earlier he and Penelope had talked a good while with Reid and JJ and it was like they were all fifty years younger again and still fighting the worst humanity had to offer. Derek only wished that Hotch could have been there, though he was sure his former boss and mentor was there in spirit. It had been nearly a decade, but that loss was still one that was hard to take. But Hotch lived on in the stories that Derek, Penelope, Reid and JJ told.

They had actually ended up attracting a bit of a crowd. Some current members of the Bureau that Derek didn't recognize, most likely colleagues of Megan's, had gathered around the table and listened avidly to the tales of some real legendary former agents and their former tech support guru who had gone on to revolutionize the way the Bureau used technology. A few of their listeners were still in their twenties, but Derek figured they were friends of his grandson's.

It was interesting the paths his kids and their children had chosen to take. Robbie had ended up inheriting the technological genius of his mother and had done some amazing work for both the government and private sector. Megan had taken after her father and become an FBI agent, though she didn't go into profiling. She joked to Derek that there was too much paperwork involved with being part of the BAU and she preferred kicking in doors and tackling suspects to writing out profiles. He had tried to tell her that he had done plenty of kicking and tackling in his day, but he didn't try to push his daughter into doing something she didn't have a passion for.

Besides, the Morgan name looked to be continued in the fine history of the BAU anyway. Robbie's oldest son had decided to join the FBI and was well on his way to becoming a fine agent and had expressed interest in behavioral analysis. But it would take awhile for him to gain entrance into the specialized unit that was the BAU since he didn't have the genius credentials that one Dr. Spencer Reid had had in getting into the BAU with unprecedented (and unparalleled since) speed. However, Derek didn't doubt for one minute that his grandson would reach his goal someday of being a part of that prestigious unit.

Darcy, again, had completely surprised everyone who didn't really know her when she forged a career completely different from what her parents had done. Her writings, both fiction and non-fiction, were some of the best Derek had ever read. Sure, he wasn't exactly impartial, but he figured the fact that her work was consistently at the top of the _New York Times_ bestseller list meant that he wasn't too far off-base.

He was about to turn his attention back to his surroundings when the object of his latest thoughts got up on the little stage in the corner and borrowed a microphone to address the crowd from the DJ that had been playing some music.

"Hey, all! Is everybody having a good time?" Darcy's question was answered with rousing cheers. "Great! Well, my cowardly siblings have elected that I be the one to get up and say a few words. I tried telling them that just because I'm a writer doesn't mean I'm competent as a public speaker, but I was outvoted. I tell you, it can be tough being the youngest." Everyone chuckled. Those near Robbie and Megan laughed a little harder at the way they rolled their eyes at the antics of their younger sister.

"But anyway, tonight's not about me. Tonight we are all gathered here to celebrate the marriage of two of the best people I've ever known. When my editor tells me I've written too sappy of a relationship between two people in one of my books, I tell him I can't help it, I grew up in a sappy home. I don't think you could have two more loving people, both in their love for me and my brother and sister, but also for each other. Of course, I'm talking about my parents, Derek and Penelope Morgan." The whole crowd clapped loudly. Then Reid and JJ and a few others started standing and soon the whole room was giving Derek and Penelope a standing ovation.

It took awhile, but eventually the applause and cheering died down and everyone returned to their seats. "I can't quite see them from up here," Darcy continued, "but I'm pretty sure both of my parents are blushing right now." Everyone laughed when Reid chimed in with a "Yup" and Derek leaned over to swat his longtime friend.

"So," Darcy started again, "what does one say on the fiftieth anniversary of one's parents? I've been thinking about that ever since it became clear to me that my siblings were going to chicken out and make me do this." A few chuckles were heard throughout the room. "I could talk about their exemplary service and dedication to the FBI and their country and how many criminals they helped to put away and how many lives they saved. I could talk about the impact they've had on the friends they've made, the next generation of agents they have mentored, the children they have raised, the grandchildren they have endlessly doted upon. But really I suppose this night is about celebrating the milestone they have reached.

"Fifty years is no small feat for any couple, but even more so for those in their field of law enforcement. They've battled demons and stayed together instead of letting those forces pull them apart. They've survived near death experiences, most notably when Dad almost gave up his life for Mom before I was born. Actually, I think I can credit that event as being the force behind my conception, so I guess I can't be entirely sorry Dad was shot that fateful day." Darcy grinned unrepentantly from her place on the stage as the crowd laughed and Derek put his hand over his face in amused embarrassment. His daughter wasn't wrong, his recovery had led to some…interesting extra-curricular activities with his wife, but he hadn't counted on that being talked about in front of a crowd like this. He peeked out from between his fingers and stole a glance at Penelope who was grinning at him. He knew she was probably at least a little embarrassed at the comment as well, but she was taking it in stride and was in fact giving him an evil smile to let him know that she remembered every detail about how Darcy was conceived. Damn, but even after fifty years of marriage that woman could get his motor running.

"But really," Darcy went on, drawing back the attention of her parents and the rest of the audience, "I don't think any of that could have been possible if they just weren't so devoted to one another. My parents are really the ideal when it comes to marriages. They've had their ups and downs like anyone, but unlike a lot of couples I've known over the years, I have never once doubted their love for one another. Actually, the word 'love' almost seems inadequate in this situation. What they have is so much more than that, because they're every cliché in the book. They are two halves of one whole, they are two peas from the same pod, etc. etc. ad nauseam. They are what my husband and I strive to be, their relationship is what poets and authors and songwriters were talking about when they described love.

"I know I'm being a bit lavish with the praise, but it's true. Before I met my husband, I envied my parents. Specifically, I envied my mother. The way my dad treated her, the way he talked to her, his love was evident constantly. And sometimes, in those special moments, I would catch him looking at her in this way that let me and anyone in the vicinity know that she was his everything. My mom was everything he every wanted, needed, wished for, just…everything. I'm lucky to say that I have been blessed enough to experience that, but it's only because my parents were and are such a great example and gave me a standard to aim for. I always knew I didn't want to settle for anything less than what they had. And so, for providing me with that amazing example, I call for a toast. Everybody stand and raise your glasses." Everyone, including Derek and Penelope, stood. "To my parents, Derek and Penelope Morgan. To fifty years of marriage, three kids and eight grandchildren. To decades of amazing service to the FBI. But most of all, to the shining example of what we all strive for, to be someone's everything in the truest sense of the notion. To them!"

Everyone clinked their glasses and cheered, but Derek had eyes for only one woman in that moment. Despite all the words Darcy had written and spoken over the years, she had never been more right than when she said that Penelope was his everything. Cupping her face in his hands, Derek leaned down and briefly kissed his wife. "She's right, you know. I love you, but it's so much more than that, Penelope Garcia Morgan. You're my everything, you always have been and always will be." Despite the tears streaming down both their faces, he kissed her again, deeper this time. They ignored the cheers and catcalls from around them and just reveled in the joy of holding one another. The rest of the world could have disappeared in that moment and Derek would not have noticed because he had his everything in his arms and that would be all he ever needed.


	14. Epilogue

**AN:** Wow, the journey is finally over. Thanks to all who have stuck with me and finished this story along with me. I really appreciate all of the amazing support I've had for this fic. And here's hoping that TPTB give me even more Garcia/Morgan goodness to work with in the third season! The more, the better. :)

**Disclaimer:** One last time for this fic I will say that I do not own _Criminal Minds_ and anything thereof. I do claim the original characters I have created, though they are only possible because of the great characters the world was given by the show and its PTB in the first place and I thank all those responsible for getting the pleasure of being able to write and share my version of the possibilities for the future of some of their characters.

* * *

_Everything I ever wanted  
And everything I need  
She's everything to me_

"Boys! Stop running around!"

"Oh, let 'em run, honey. It's a beautiful day and they just want to stretch their legs."

His wife rolled her eyes. "We're in a _cemetery_, RJ. It just seems wrong somehow."

"It wouldn't be to my grandparents," he countered as he took his wife's hand. They followed their sons at a more leisurely pace than the two youngsters had set. "I think they'd enjoy looking down and seeing their great-grandkids having a good time."

She smiled at him, though she was obviously still exasperated. "Fine, point taken, but if they start climbing on the tombstones or disturbing anyone else here visiting a grave, you're the one that has to handle them."

"Deal," he agreed as they approached the grave they had come to see. It had been a long time since he had had a chance to come by here what with being assigned to an office on the other side of the country, but he had finally achieved his lifelong goal and after his wife and his parents, these were the two people in the world he most wanted to tell.

His wife put down on the ground in front of the tombstone the flowers they had brought. She carefully arranged them in the simple vase they had gotten with the blooms, then stood and gave him a hug and a kiss to the cheek. "I'll leave you alone for a few minutes and go see where the boys have gotten to."

"Thanks." He stared down at the grave of his grandparents. They had been gone awhile now, but he could still remember them like he had been to their house yesterday. Playing computer games with his grandma. His grandpa telling him stories, sometimes ones from his time in the FBI, though RJ was never allowed to tell his parents and his grandma about those. And the big family gatherings they would have when everyone would make the effort to come to the house and spend time together, no matter how far apart they lived.

"Hey, Gramps, Grandma," he started. "I know it's been a long time since I've been by and I'm sorry about that. I'm sure Dad's told you about what I've been up to. The L.A. office was a challenge, which I knew it would be from Uncle Reid, but it paid off. I've been promoted to the BAU." He knelt and ran his fingers over his grandparents' names. "You both told me that I would make it someday and I finally did. I only wish you could have been here to see it. I've got a lot to live up to with a last name like Morgan, but I promise that I'll do my best to make you guys proud."

"Who're you talking to, Dad?" RJ turned to find his oldest son standing next to him.

"Your great-grandparents." He reached out an arm and brought his son up next to his side. "You never got to meet them because they passed away not long before you were born, but you would have liked them. They were a lot like your Grandma and Grandpa, only cooler." He smiled at his son's amazement that anybody could be cooler than his grandparents. He only had one set of them because his mom's parents had died years before. Since RJ's parents lived on the east coast and didn't get to see their grandsons very much, they took every opportunity to spoil them rotten.

Once he was past that crazy thought, the boy contemplated the tombstone. "Hey, he had the same name as me!"

The father smiled and ruffled his son's hair. "Yes, he did. Your grandpa is Robert Derek and I'm Robert Derek Junior, so when you were born we just switched the names back around and named you Derek Robert so that you would be named after both your great-grandfather and your grandpa. Just like your brother is named after your mom's grandpa and dad."

"Cool." The boy touched the emblem of the Federal Bureau of Investigation which had been emblazoned in the middle of the stone above the two names. "Do you think I'll be in the FBI someday like you are and they were and Great-Aunt Megan?"

"If you want to. But you've got a very long time before you have to decide that."

"'Kay." The boy looked closely at the dates on the stone. RJ could almost predict what was coming next. His son had gotten very interested in math lately and making equations out of practically anything. It wasn't out of the question that the boy could grow up to be a fine FBI agent, but right now RJ would put down money that his son was more likely to follow in the footsteps of his great-grandmother rather than his great-grandfather.

"They only died a couple months apart, Dad. Two months and five days to be exact."

"That's right. Your great-grandmother, my Grandma Penelope, died of a massive stroke. When she was gone, Gramps just didn't seem to want to stay around much longer. He loved his kids and his grandkids and his great-grandkids very, very much, but he had been with Grandma Penelope a really long time and I guess he just wanted to be with her again."

"Do you think they are together? Up in heaven?" The boy looked to his father with innocent inquisitiveness in his eyes.

"I think so. I even think Grandma Penelope just went up there first to check things out like she used to do for Gramps in the FBI, checking out everything on the computer so he would know everything he needed to catch the bad guys. Once she had checked everything out, he went up there and joined her."

"Cool." The boy hugged his dad, then leaned back to look in his face. "Can we go get ice cream when we're done here?"

The father smiled. "Sure, kiddo. In fact, why don't you go gather up your mom and your brother and meet me at the car. I'll be there in just a minute."

"Okay!" The boy ran off and RJ just smiled before standing and turning back to the tombstone.

"I wish you guys could have met the boys. They're great, though sometimes I worry they're too much like me and not enough like their mother. I'll bring them back sometime now that we live nearby, though I'm sure you guys are looking down on them already. You guys probably haven't stopped protecting people even up in heaven."

He took a deep breath to get back his emotions before continuing. "And I want to tell you that you were right all those years ago, Gramps, back when I told you that I was going to propose to Annie. Even though I've had to work hard to make it to the BAU, I haven't once forgotten your advice that I needed to keep my priorities straight and not neglect my family. She's my everything, just like Grandma was for you, and I won't do anything to lose that. I know now what you meant about being a better agent because of Grandma and not just because of her computer skills. Annie makes me a better agent, a better man, and I can't imagine life without her, my everything."

He laid a hand on the stone, said goodbye, then before he joined his family he read one last time the words under the names and dates. There were a few lines for each about how they had been loving and beloved parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, friends and colleagues. But what always got to him the most were the lines at the bottom which were short summations of what his grandparents had been to one another. On his grandfather's side it read, _He was her rock, her constant in every one of life's storms_.

And on his grandmother's side was etched, _From the day they met and into forever, she was and is one thing to him: his everything_.


End file.
